The religion of the Crow Indians

ANTHROPOLOGICAL PAPERS

OF

THE AMERICAN MUSEUM
OF NATURAL HISTORY

Vol. XXV, Part II

THE RELIGION OF THE CROW INDIANS

BY

ROBERT H. LOWIE

THE

f AMERICAN
MUSEUM

NATURAL U
HISTORY

6L25l^

•C/IlL/T new YORK

PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF THE TRUSTEES
1922

^ -'^,

'"" ""'fioey

THE RELIGION OF THE CROW INDIANS.
By Rouekt H, Lowie.

300

CONTENTS.

PREFACE

SUPERNATURAL BEINGS .
VISIONS AND DREAMS

Painless Visions

Unsought Stress Visions

Sought Visions .
SHAMANS ...

Contests

Legerdemain

Invulnerability

Charming Game .

War Shamans

Wraps-up-his-tail

Miscellaneous .
THE PRACTICE OF MEDICINE
SOULS; GHOSTS; HEREAFTER
SPECIAL MEDICINE OBJECTS

Medicine Rocks ...

Bundles

Hillside's Account of the Arrow Bundle
Flat-head-woman's Arrow Bundle
Flat-head-woman's Tale

Painted Tipis ....

Shields

The Tale of Magpie's Shield

Various Medicine Objects

MAGIC

OFFERINGS AND PRAYERS

TABOOS

MISCELLANEOUS DATA
APPENDIX

The Five Brothers

Page.
313
315
323
325
330
332
344
344
351
353
354
359
368
372
373
380
385
385
391
391
394
395
401
402
409
418
424
426
433
434
438
438

311

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

Text Figures.

Page.

1. Medicine Rock with Offerings 3*^6

2. Medicine Rock with Offerings 387

3. Magpie's Shield 405

4. Wolf-Hes-down's Shield 405

•5. Shield Covers 405

6. Buffalo-hide Shield 406

7. War Medicine 41«

312

PREFACE.

Religious beliefs penetrate practically every phase of Crow culture,
and accordingly considerable information on this topic is sprinkled
through a number of previous publications dealing with this tribe,
notably those devoted to the description of ceremonial activities. In
the present paper, I attempt to expound those Crow conceptions that
would naturally be looked for under the caption of "Religion" and in
the interests of clearness, I have sometimes drawn on material already
in print.

How fruitful comparative researches in this field are likely to be, is
suggested by a preliminary essay on the guardian spirit and vision con-
cept of the area, by Mrs. Ruth Benedict, which is to appear in the
"American Anthropologist" and which I have had the pleasure of read-
ing in typescript. Naturally comparison cannot logically stop at the
more or less artificial boundaries involved in the delimitation of culture
areas. The student of the Plains is led imperceptibly to consider condi-
tions in the Woodland area as well, and it would be odd if the undoubted
ceremonial connections between the Plains and the Southwest were
wholly unaccompanied by corresponding resemblances in the subjective
counterpart of ritual. However, though keenly interested in comparative
investigations of this type, I have in the present paper confined myself
almost entirely to offering some additional raw data to my colleagues.

The material was not gathered during a single visit specially devoted
to the subject here dealt with, but at various times during my Crow field-
trips, ranging from 1907 to 1916. Probably more information was ob-
tained from Gray-bull than from any one other native authority, and
the sum-total of the statements attributed to him furnishes a fair
conception of the religious attitude of a Crow Indian ranking high,
though not among the very highest, in public esteem and entering fully
into the religious life of his people without functioning as a religious
leader. In that sense his career is more typical than that of personalities
like Medicine-crow, Big-ox, or Lone-tree, from and about whom, how-
ever, I have secured as much information as I could.

Robert H. Lowie.
January, 1922.

SUPERNATURAL BEINGS.

The Siouan term that has become best known as an equivalent of
the Algonkian manito is the Dakota wakq. Variants of this stem, such
as wakanda, wakandagi, makq, have been reported from Southern
Siouan tribes. I know of no phonetic equivalent in Crow. On the other
hand, J. O. Dorsey records another Omaha word for mysterious, viz.
quhe, which is clearly related to the Winnebago qopine, Mandan XQpini\
Hidatsa xupi or maxupi, Crow maxpe or maxps. The initial ma in
Hidatsa and Crow is simply the generic nominal prefix, leaving xp as
the consonantal complex to be used for comparative purposes. The occur-
rence of Biloxi xi with the identical connotation is at least suggestive.^
Whether it represents a reduced Siouan stem or a radical form, is a
question to be decided by linguistic speciaHsts. That, the Biloxi form
should recall the Northern Siouan languages leather than those of the
Omaha group, is not remarkable since this talUes with Swanton's ob-
servations on the language generally.

It remains to elucidate the Crow concept by some concrete examples
of the application of its linguistic correlate. So far as I know, the Crow
never refer to the Supreme Being by a term corresponding to the Dakota
Waka-tanka (Great Mystery). The concept of God with which they
have been familiarized by missionaries is rendered ak'-hitdt-did, He-who-
everything-made ; and the aboriginal notion that most closely resembles
that of Christianity is covered by terms not involving the stem maxpe
at all, viz., by the words Isi'kawudte (Old-Man-Coyote) and Ax^ace
(Sun). This, of course, does not mean that Old-Man-Coyote and the
Sun are not regarded as maxpe; I am convinced that they are. How-
ever, it indicates that the Crow are charier of using the term than the
Dakota. They apply it, so far as I can see, not to designate particular
individualized supernatural beings, but to convey the idea that a person
or object is possessed of those quaUties transcending the ordinary which
are summarized by the generic word maxpe. This, then, is an abstract
notion to which concrete experiences are or are not assimilated. The
man who superintended the driving of deer into a corral is thus described
in a text: ak'did batse rdk maxpd'-tseruk, "The one who did it was a
maxpn man, it is said." In a myth a woman who has transformed herself
into a bear is pursuing her sister and brothers. A magical obstacle is
created to delay her. But : maxpi-racen ik' uctsi'-tseruk, "She was maxpd,

'I also recorded a Mandan stem maxana.

-J. O. Dorsey, "A Study of Siouan Cults" {Eleventh Annual Report, Bureau of American Ethnology,
Washington, 1894), .366 f.; J. O. Dorsey and John R. Swanton, "A Dirtionary of the Biloxi and Ofo
Languages" (Bulletin 47, Bureau of American Ethnology, Washington, 1912), 221.

315

316 Anthropological Papers American Museum oj Natural History. [Vol. XXV,

that is why she got out, it is said." Old-Woman's-Grandchild, the hero
who conquers all sorts of monsters, is of course maxpe; his adoptive
grandmother, who is often identified with the witch Hicictawio, is
specifically described as "also maxpi" {ku maxpi^'rdk').

The stem appears nominally without the prefix mtheiormxapdnid)
e.g., xapiri-ice, medicine-case. The suffix I interpret as the stem did,
to make, to cause. Generally possessive pronouns are prefixed and the
medial p becomes a sonant. Thus, we get such combinations as, nax-
pits'e idxbiridc, the bear is his medicine; hidxbiridc di'ita, take that medi-
cine of mine. This noun designates any tangible object regarded with
special veneration, e.g., the feather derived from a vision and insuring
safety in battle.

Altogether the Crow concepts correspond to the Hidatsa equivalents,
xupi, maxupi, as defined by Matthews, who writes them hopd, mahopd.
The former means "to be mysterious; sacred, to have curative powers, to
possess charm, incomprehensible, spiritual. Same as Dakota wakan,
but signifies also the power of curing diseases." The noun is rendered
"medicine, charm, spell."^

Of recent years the question has been broached whether the manitou
concept may not be completely merged in that of animism. That is to
say, the sacredness of maxpe persons or objects is ascribed solely to the
connection they have had with spirits.- Thus, Dr. Radin quite cate-
gorically states that the Winnebago and Ojibway apply their respective
terms for 'mysterious' invariably "to definite spirits, not necessarily
definite in shape,"; and he evidently regards this statement as of uni-
versal validity, at least in North America. A peculiarly shaped object,
he argues, receives offerings because it belongs to a spirit or is ^ spirit's
dwelling-place; an arrow possesses specific virtues because it is a spirit
transformed or a spirit's abode; and so forth.

This point of view does not appear to me to be borne out by the
Crow data. It is true that in Crow theory almost all 'medicine' objects
are derived from a vision, that is to say, from a spiritual visitant. But
this spirit is frequently not 'definite' in any ordinary sense of the term.
That is, it is not one of a serips of supernatural beings definite^ con-
ceived by the Indian before his vision, but merely a personified cause
of the visionary's subjective experiences. This is why the Crow who has

•Washington Matthews. "Ethnography and Philology of the Hidatsa Indians" (Miscellaneous
Publications, United States Geological and Geographical Survey, no. 7, Washington, 1877), 47 seq., 149,
184.

2Paul Radin, "Religion of the North American Indians" (Journal of American Folk-Lore, vol. 27,
1914), 344-351.

1922.] Lowie, Religion of the Crow. 317

prayed for a blessing to the Sun may receive a revelation from a quite
different being. For the same reason he differentiates between dream
experiences of two different types, — the ordinary dreams without reUgi-
ous significance, and the dreams that are reckoned the full equivalent of
visions. Evidently the difference can only rest on a difference in sub-
jective reaction; one experience thrills and thereby convinces the be-
holder that he is in communication with the supernatural, the other does
not.

Secondly, the application of the term rnaxpe suggests that it is
primarily an expression of power transcending the ordinary. The bear-
woman of the myth is maxpe because she has power to transform herself
into a bear, to extricate herself from difficult positions, etc. There is no
other way to account for such activities than to assume that she has some
of that supernatural attribute by which such results are effected. But
there is no suggestion that she ever acquired her powers from a definite
spirit. Tliis, however, merely brings us to the question, "What is a
spirit?" And the only empirical answer possible seems to be that the
maxpe power is the generic principle of which spirits are the personified
concrete manifestations. What makes it possible to group together so
heterogeneous an assemblage of beings as the Sun, the Thunderbird, the
mythical Dwarf, and a hundred and one others who may appear in
visions is that they possess maxpe power and are able to transfer it:
this and this alone is the badge of their divinity.

Finally, the psychological processes assumed towards the same
tangible 'medicine' object must be supposed to vary with different
persons using it. The original visionary may invest it with an air of
sacredness because he has received it from a spiritual visitant. But to
his fellow-tribesmen who have not shared the experience demonstration of
its genuinely sacred character Hes in success. If the medicine was given
to insure safety in battle and the owner emerges unscathed from hostile
encounters; if it was granted for the acquisition of wealth and the bene-
ficiary secures an abundance of horses: then others will seek participa-
tion in the benefits of the vision by purchase and will ordinarily obtain
copies of the medicine with instructions as to its use and relevant taboos.
Now it is inconceivable that in such cases, which were exceedingly
numerous, the ultimate medicine owner should retain the attitude of
mind of the original visionary. To all intents and purposes the medicine
becomes in his consciousness a charm or fetish devoid of definite spiritu-
ality. He may press his medicine to his breast and utter a prayer for
long life and happiness, but even if there be a transitory personification

318 Anthropological Papers American Museum of Natural Hisiory. [Vol. XXV,

of the object there is no individualization; the same prayer would be
mumbled to any one of a thousand other medicine objects. And as an
object originally bestowed in a vision may be completely divorced in
consciousness from its pristine animistic associations, so I am convinced
that objects, such as rocks (p. 385), are invested with the maxpe quality
without regard to their being the seat or transformed essence of a spirit.
At all events, the burden of the proof rests upon those who in the absence
of evidence insist on an animistic basis for the maxpe concept.

From the variability of individual visionary experiences it follows
that the number of supernatural beings is indefinite; and as pointed out
above, the character of these beings is frequently ill-defined. Never-
theless, certain natural phenomena and mythological personages lend at
least their names to the spirits that figure in religious belief and practice.
It would be vain to attempt an hierarchical systematization of these
'deities.' The Crow have no priestly caste and there has been little
attempt to standardize popular conceptions. Above all, we must
beware of identifying the results of such ratiocination with the spontane-
ous reactions of the individual's religious consciousness. In the latter the
feather granted in a vision and insuring to its possessor longevity or
wealth looms larger, I am convinced, than anj' of the cosmic forces, no
matter how important these may be in philosophic speculation. In
other words, the Crow seem to me to be essentially individualists in
reHgion. Not that a common traditional basis of reUgious conceptions
is lacking; but the relative value assigned to specific elements of this
chaotic complex varies with individual experiences.

A partial exception may be made in favor of the Sun. I do not mean
that a person who has received a revelation from the Thunder will sub-
ordinate his patron to the Sun in his own religious life. But probably
a majority of the Crow looked in the first instance for a revelation from
the Sun and certain important rituaUstic phenomena are predominantly,
if not exclusively, associated with solar worship. Thus, the oaths sworn
to establish a claim to disputed war honors were addressed to the Sun;
to him were offered the skins of albino buffalo ; and at least preferentially
the sweatlodge seems to have been conceived as a prayer to the Sun.

The Sun, then, approaches as closely as any Crow deity to our con-
cept of a Supreme Being. Nevertheless, his character is singularly ill-
defined, and if we have recourse to mythological evidence we merely
have confusion worse confounded. For one thing, there is marked dis-
crepancy of opinion as to the identity of the Sun and Old-Man-Coyote.
There is at least a strong tendenc}^ to regard them as one and the same,

1922.

Loivie, Religion of the Crow. 319

yet in his cosmogonic accounts Medicine-crow, one of my most conserva-
tive informants, constantly vacillated as to the identification.^ On the
other hand, White-arm went so far as to say that the Sun was regularly
supplicated in prayer, while Old-Man-Coyote never was; while One-blue-
bead regarded Old-Man-Coyote as the creator of everything and the
equivalent of Ak'-hHdt-du (God), but said that the Sun was distinct
{cidr-dk').

I am inclined to take the position that we are here confronted with
the coalescence of two originally distinct conceptions. The Sun, judging
from our knowledge of other tribes, must have been an ancient constitu-
ent of aboriginal religion. Similarly, the culture-hero and trickster
concept as exemphfied in the character of Old-Man-Coyote is of great
antiquity but has rather literary and philosophical than religious sig-
nificance. He is the deus ex machina, to whom the Crow almost auto-
matically attribute the origin of most tribal institutions. This aspect of
his activities is at least not irreconcilable with the less definite notions the
Crow may be assumed to have had of the Sun. It may have been the
desire to give greater definiteness to their conceptions of the foremost of
their supernatural beings that led some Crow unconsciously to identify
the two characters by tacitly ignoring the less dignified phase of Old-Man-
Coyote. On the other hand, some individualities may be reluctant to
accept the mythical character as a rehgious being because of the part he
plays in folk-literature. It is true that the Sun does not uniformly
appear either as a benevolent or a superior being, for in the story of
"The Orphan's Contest with the Sun,"^ he mahciously keeps away game
from the Indians because of the hero's intimacy with his mistress and is
worsted in the ensuing conflict. However, in general, the Sun is pic-
tured as both powerful and benignant and certainly never as a trickster.

The Sun is always conceived as male and is often addressed as indsa'-
ka, paternal uncle, father's clansman. Although the Sun is so frequently
prayed to, it is remarkable that he so rarely appears in visions. In-the-
mouth explained this by saying that he (as well as Cirape and Old-Man-
Coyote) sent the various animals that do appear, but his statement is
uncorroborated and seemed like an interpretation given at the spur of
the moment.

The manner of praying to the Sun and making offerings to him will
be considered below. As to his creative functions, however, one point
had best be made in the present connection. Though he (or Old-Man-

^Lowie, this volume, 14 f.
'Lowie, this volume, 99.

320 Anthropological Papers American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XXV,

Coyote) is commonly identified with Ak'-hiVdt-did, he actually does not
figure in myth as the creator of everything, but only as the creator of the
Indians and the one who arranges the earth after having birds dive for it.
Apart from these birds, which while figuring as the Sun's (Old-Man-
Coyote's) servants are not stated to be his creatures, the Coyote, the
prototype of the medicine-rocks (hacDritsi'tse) , and the sacred Tobacco
plant are all expressly described as beings of independent origin.^

Old-Man-Coyote, apart from his mythical exploits and pranks, is as
indefinite a being as the Sun, with whom he is so frequently identified.
Where he functions rehgiously, the trickster phase of his dual person-
ahty is wholly lacking. In mythology it is important to note that he is
not represented as a coyote; indeed, a coyote is repeatedly associated
with him as a distinct individual.- When he transforms himseh into
animal shape, he assumes the form of a wolf,^ but most commonly he
appears as a human character and is occasionally called by the usual
Hidatsa designation of First-worker (Itsf'k'-baric^), which of course has
no animal suggestions.

The Moon figures far less frequently than the Sun in religious belief
and practice. According to one informant, the address misa'ka, father's
clansman (see above), is shared by this spirit, which would make it of
male sex, but according to Gray-bull, whose opinion is borne out by the
weight of other evidence, the proper address is masa'Mare, grandmother.
It also appears as a man in one of the versions of the Grandson myth,^
however the preponderance of evidence is to the effect that it is conceived
as female. There is said to be an old woman in the moon and a pole with
meat hanging from it. In a tale which is essentially the account of a
vision and might in some measure reflect actual experiences of this type,
the Moon appears as a woman of plain dress and wearing an elkskin robe;
in another story she is an old woman dwelUng near the Sun.^ In a nar-
rative accounting for the origin of the sacred doll employed in the sun
dance, the IMoon woman, dressed in an elk robe, presents the first doll-
maker with this holy image, and the doll is said to represent the Moon.^
Gray-bull's statements are entitled to special consideration on this
subject, since he had a brass representation of the New-Moon for one of
his medicines and occasionally made smoke offerings to the Full-Moon

'Lowie, this volume 14 f.

'Sec this volume, 15, 17 seq.

Hhid., 31, 38.

*The Hidatsa equivalent is Itsi'kawa'hiric.

'Lowie, this volume, 52.

Hhid., 187, 157.

'Lowie, this series, vol. 10, 14.

1922.] Lowie, Religion of the Crow. 321

and prayed to her. When he obtained his medicine he was told that the
Moon was an old woman; he says that Old -Man-Coyote when visiting
the Crow' told them the Moon was their grandmother. Gray-bull in a
dream once saw an old woman who gave him a song, and he identifies
her with the Moon. Old-dog told me about an old man who had a vision
of the New-Moon, cut out a crescent-shaped hide riiedicine for himself
and captured four hundred Dakota horses in consequence.

Of the stars the Morningstar (i'g'e-rhxe) and the Dipper have
religious significance. Mythologically Old-Woman's-Grandson is the
Sun's son, and after conquering various monsters infesting the earth he
returns to the sky to become the Morningstar.^ A fair number of Indians
stated that Grandson was regularly invoked by them. Thus, Little-
rump said that people prayed to him in time of war and erected sweat-
lodges in his honor. According to Old-dog, the Crow were still praying
to him in 1913. Others denied that Grandson was ever addressed in
supplication. This discrepancy is readily intelligible if^we assume that
some informants simply looked upon Grandson as the hero of a folk-tale
without paying much attention to his ultimate actual transformation;
while with others the identification of the Morningstar with the ogre-
killer and his relationship to the Sun were in the foreground of conscious-
ness. Assuming the former attitude, they would see no more reason for
deifying Grandson than other mythic heroes; in the latter case, however,
he might actually acquire an important position in the rehgious domain.
On the other hand, the identification with stars of the twin heroes,
Spring-boy and Curtain-boy,^ in one version of their myth has remained
barren of any religious consequences.

In mythology the Morningstar also appears without any suggestion
of affinity with Old-Woman's-Grandson. It is further noteworthy that
in two of these tales he is worsted by human heroes who have received
assistance from other supernatural powers.^

As a characteristic sample of inconsistency may be cited the con-
ception of one informant that Sun, Moon, and Morningstar were enemies
and that if one of them adopted an Indian, the others would attempt to
get him and eat hun. Morningstar and Sun, according to this authority,
once adopted a Crow and a Dakota, respectively. The latter went on
the warpath but was killed by the Crow, whereupon Morningstar ate
him. On another occasion Sun and Morningstar bet against eacTi other,

•Lowie, this volume, 30 f .
^ibi'i., 57.

3)67rf., 8.=).

*Lowie, this volume, 102 seq., 200 seq.

322 Anthropological Papers American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XXV,

having various animals play shinuey for them with the sunrise and sunset
as their goals. Sun's players were on the east side and included the
silver fox, coyote, and jackrabbit; Morningstar's players were in the
west and included the elk, white-tail and black-tail deer, and another
deer species called ii'xkdce. During the game both Sun and Star caused
storms; Star made the snow very deep so that the httle animals could
not run. At last the elk, being long-winded, won.

The sacred Tobacco about which center the performances of the
Tobacco society, is quite generally identified with the stars,— sometimes
it would seem with all of them collectively, then again more specifically
with the Morningstar.

The Dipper (Vg e-sd' pud = Seven Stars) is mythologically conceived
as a group of seven hmnan brothers who had become displeased with their
terrestrial experiences and decided to change their shape into something
that should last forever. At the close of their discussion they decide to
transform themselves into the constellation.^ The Dipper not infre-
quently blessed f asters with a vision : Lone-tree was among those adopted
by them.^ The Stars often appeared painted in a particular way, hold-
ing a pipe or with wreaths of medicines, which they turned over to the
visionary. As a result he would capture horses and become a chief.
One Crow said that one of the Seven Stars is blind and that he has the
greatest power of them all.

The Four Winds are mentioned as recipients of smoke offerings but
play a minor part. On the other hand, the Thunder (suo) is important
both mythologically and religiously. As usual, he is identified with the
eagle (perhaps more commonly with the bald-headed eagle) . In myth he
is represented as the enemy of a water-monster, which destroys his young
but is overcome with the aid of an expert hunter.^ Various Indians have
been adopted by the Thunder, among them Lone-tree and Big-ox, both
of whom were still ahve in 1911.

Another mythic personage who appeared in visions is the uniformly
benevolent Dwarf, who, in spite of his diminutive stature is represented
as very powerful physically.^

In addition to the mainly cosmic beings described above there are
the host of spirits — mostly in beast or bird shape — who appear in visions
and whose characteristics will appear more clearly from the account in
the following section.

'ibid., 126, 210, 211.
^This series, vol. 16, 41.
'This volume, 144 seq.
*ibid., 165, 171 seq.

VISIONS AND DREAMS.

The importance of visions in the hfe of the Crow can hardly be
overestimated. Not only the general course of sacred ceremonies but
even such details as particular songs or specific methods of painting are
traced to visions. Through them it was possible to rise from abject
poverty to affluence and social prestige. Even war parties were, at
least in theory, wholly dependent on them, for a man organized one only
when prompted by a vision or when dispatched by another man who had
received such a supernatural communication.^ Since success in life was
conceived as the result of these revelations, probably all men tried to
secure a vision, though many of them failed. Conversely, lack of success
was attributed to lack of visions. "All who had visions," said Little-
rmnp, "were well-to-do; I was to be poor {watsecik'), that is why I had
no visions." However, through the transferability of medicine power it
became possible for people not blessed with visions to participate in the
benefits accruing from such experiences.

The native term for 'having a vision' is had'ri, which also means 'to
dream.' One informant made a linguistic distinction to correspond to the
conceptual one. A common dream, he stated, is bar e-rdmm acne; a
vision or dream with visionary import, hare-wacfre. Although I cannot
analyze the second portion of the former term, it is clearly for the most
part identical with the word for vision; and my impression is that in
ordinary intercourse no verbal differentiation occurs, though conceptu-
ally the distinction is rigidly maintained.

There were various methods of inducing visions. Gray-bull re-
counted the following: —

(1) Some went to the mountains and fasted there. These men
would generally dream of guns, coups, and horses.

(2) Some dreamt in their lodges. These usually became rich, ac-
quiring plenty of horses.

(3) Others, usually poor people, would fall asleep somewhere when
very tired and get a vision.

(4) Some fasted at the Tobacco garden.

(5) The Whistler got a vision at the Sun dance; so did those
participants in the ceremony who suspended themselves from poles.'

(6) A man might drag a buffalo or bear skull fastened to the pierced
skin of his back; or would lead around a horse similarly secured to his
body.

'Lowie, this series, vol. 9, 232.
^Lowie, this series, vol. 16, 44 f.

323

324 Anthropological Papers American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XXV,

Gray-bull's enumeration is corroborated and supplemented by the
following statements secured from Scratches-face: —

Some had dreams while out lost in a storm at night or under similar circumstances.
In these dreams beings would ccme to them while they were not asleep and showed
them what kind of medicine to have. Others, having lost a sister or brother or some
other close relative, would chop off a finger and go to the mountains to have dreams.
All this comes from Old-Woman's-Grandson. In their dreams they would see a bird
or some other animal transformed into a man w^ho had painted his face and tied
certain feathers to his head and would tell the visionary to imitate hipi. Those who
herded horses would stay out at night with their herd and sometimes had dreams of
horses. Then they went out to the enemy and brought back so many head of horses.
In their vision they would see a horse turn into a man, who would talk to the dreamer.
First the visionary would see a man who showed him some medicine, then the visitant
would turn into an animal. Those who dreamt of a bear were not shot in battles,
or even if they were shot, the arrows or bullets would fall to the ground. Badger
dreams are the same. I know of two men who dreamt of a badger. One of them would
not eat the young of any animal. I saw the other deliberately shoot himself in the
breast, but the bullet fell on the ground and he was not killed. Sometimes people
dreamt of stones or rocks; these would be like the bear and badger dreamers. Some-
times the bear was thought to be a real bear, sometimes he would come out of the
clouds. These were larger than real bears, I don't know what they were. Old-
Woman's-Grandson told all the animals to help the people of the earth, and that is
why they appeared in these dreams. The animals gave power to these Indians.

Scratches-face's views on Old-Woman's-Grandson were shared by
some other informants, but not by all (see p. 321). It will be noted that
he assigns a specific character to visions of bears, badgers, and rocks, to
wit, that of bestowing immunity to missiles.

Suspension from a pole after the fashion observed at the time of the
Sun dance was also practised on other occasions, but perhaps less fre-
quently than other forms of self-torture. Bear-crane described the ex-
perience of a visionary. Red-bear, who used this method. He took a
stick, went up into the mountains, planted his stick into the ground and
tied a rope to it. In the morning he painted himself with white clay,
cut his breast, inserted a stick, attached the rope to it, and ran round
the post all day. At night he tore out the skin and slept on the mountain,
dreaming that he was a chief. He returned to the Crow and announced
his vision. He had dreamt of an enemy whom he had slain and scalped.
He had his wife make moccasins and set out as a leader of a war party,
consummating his vision.

In the various ways of gaining supernatural favor may be recognized
three main types: the visionary may receive a revelation without seeking
one or enduring any hardship whatsoever; he may be visited by super-
natural beings in times of difficulty without a deUberate courting of

1922.] Lowie, Religion of the Crow. 325

them; and he may go in quest of a vision, generally subjecting himself to
suffering in order to arouse their commiseration and thus obtain a revela-
tion.

Painless Visions.

Men who received unsought supernatural communications of im-
portance without being placed in conditions of stress were relatively few
in number and were regarded as remarkably fortunate since they escaped
the necessity of torturing themselves. In such cases the Crow use the
expression hnwawd'tek' (1st person: ba-wawi'tawak') , he gets something
without working. One-blue-bead offers the best example of this type of
vision, and his narrative follows: —

When I was a boy I was herding horses. I took them to the water. This was on a
flat. I lay down and fell asleep. I saw something mysterious (maxpe hmvdkdk').
In those days if Indians wanted anything they had to hunt for it. When I got this, I
struck first coups. When I saw the camp of the enemy, I tied my feather to the back
of my head, and then captured and owned horses.

When I had driven my horses to the water and they were grazing, I fell asleep.
I saw a person on a white-maned buckskin horse; his face was painted red, also there
were slanting lines from the eyes down. His forehead was red. He had a buckskin
shirt. I saw the feather of the isirdxdipcire (a species of chicken-hawk) tied to one of
liis shoulders. He, was like a Crow dressed for battle. I heard a voice saying, "Chief
Chicken-hawk is coming from there now." He came riding a dark bay. His horse's
tail was wrapped. This is the name I gave Jim Carpenter's little girl. Some time
later I heard the words "Chicken-hawk woman" and gave this name to my grand-
daughter.

This is my principal medicine. I am telling the truth. This is a fine day. You
(R. H. L.) will have good luck.

Other people have to torture themselves; I never cut myself. My only marks
were those of arrows in battle. I never had to ask any one else for medicine like other
men. Many people had no vision. These gave lots of property to the visionary and
might get a vision through him. Some get a vision even in their own tipi. Somehow,.
I don't know how, they tell a vision from an ordinary dream. A common dream
bare rdmmaclre) and medicine dream or vision {bare wacVre) are quite different.

My medicine was good for war. I took it with me on the warpath. When I
saw the enemy, I sang my song and tied it to my back. This is my song: —

mi rakakam, bowik.

I am a bird, I am coming.

When at home I stored my medicine; in dancing and sham battles, I took it out.
I never gave it to anyone else. Just lately I made one for Andrew Wallace. He asked
me for one. I saw no use for it as we have no more wars, but I gave it to him so that
he might have good luck in owning horses.

My medicine forbids me to make myself bleed, for example to cut off my fingers;
and if meat has blood on it, I won't eat it. At the time of my vision I was told not to
eat blood, and not to make myself bleed.

326 Anthropological Papers American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XXV,

When I was a boy, I was poor. I saw war parties come back with leaders in front
and having a procession. I used to envy them and made up my mind to fast and
become like them. When I saw.the vision I got what I had longed for. I always was
in something good (some good war deed). I killed eight enemies.

Young men went out to seek visions of their own accord. Before going they
swam, took a sweatbath, and rubbed themselves all over with sagebrush. Before
sunrise they went out, taking sage and ground-cedar for their bedding, for all the
animals liked these plants. When they came back from their fast, they had a sweat-
lodge made and told their vision. Unless a large sudatory was seen in the vision, a
small one was used. Visionaries might announce their vision to famous men either
in the sweatlodge or at a feast.

I have heard some say, "I had a vision this way, but I hear I have been fooled."
Some can tell beforehand when they are going to die. They say, "My father is going
to take me back," then thej^ die soon after. The only thing I prayed to specially
was my feather. I might pray to the Sun any time.

On another occasion this informant gave a shghtly different account,
making his visitant appear as a hawk, but since he represents himself
as awake at the time he was probably referring to another vision from
the same source. The hawk would sing songs, fly up, and do various
things. It did not give One-blue-bead any objects, but he noted the
songs and actions of the bird. Afterwards he struck three coups, this
is what the hawk gave him. During another interview One-blue-bead
spoke of the bird as having changed itself into a young man mounted
on a cream bucksldn horse with a bird of its own kind at the back of his
head.

One-blue-bead's account touches on a number of vital points. In
conformity with other data we may harmonize the himian and the bird
character of his visitant by supposing that he appeared first as a man,
reveahng his identity, however, by the hawk feather and in vanishing
assumed bird shape. That One-blue-bead adopted the feather seen as a
tangible representative of his revelation, is highly characteristic, so is the
tendency to confer a name on children based on one's visionary experi-
ences. Equally significant is the contrast between his poverty and lack
of prominence before the vision and his later martial success and conse-
quent social distinction. The imposition of taboos, often of a quite
fanciful character, such as that against eating blood, is extremely com-
mon in visions; in fact, practically all such regulations are traced to in-
structions received under such circumstances. Finally, may be noted the
expression 'my father' as apphed to the visitant. It is generally under-
stood that a spirit appearing to a visionary adopts him as his child ; the
standard formula being, "di harak' Mwik;" "You (obj.) my child I will
make." Hence the constant use of parent and child terms of relation-
ship in the myths dealing with supernatural patrons.

1922.] Lowie, Religion of the Crow. 327

Arm-round-the-neck had twice attempted to gain a vision by not
drinking water, but failed. However, he was fortunate in having 'dreams'
while sleeping. I cite his remarks practically verbatim but slightly re-
arranged so as to bring together statements bearing on the same ex-
perience.

I had dreams while sleeping. I saw a bear and a horse two different times; also a
bird. The bear I saw was singing to some people; some of them fell down while he
was singing, and he jumped on them. He held his arm towards the people while sing-
ing and when he was done the trees and brush in front of him fell down. He started
toward the people and some fell down. He said, "Of everything I shall have plenty."
Later I achieved much in battles. I saw his face paint and used it. I also made a
cap of bearskin and used it. Later I sold it to a man, who paid me four kinds of
property, among them a woman, for it. The cap was frcm the head of a bear with
the ears and was decorated with a horse tail in the rear. The buyer gave me a blanket,
earrings, a Navajo breechcloth, and a girl never previously married. My mother's
brother had the bear for his medicine and made me a bearclaw necklace; that may
have been the reason for my dream. I like a bear when I see one, but if I wanted the
hide I should kill him; I killed a bear in order to make my cap.

I saw the horses singing; they did not lie to me. I dreamt someone was kicking
my foot and there were horses all round me with ropes to their necks and fastened to
my body. I heard someone say, "Wherever you go, you shall have horses." Ever
since then I have had horses. I think this dream was given me by dogs. I was walk-
ing, followed by several dogs. I lay down under a tree and fell asleep, with the dogs
lying round me about the tent. So I thought they took pity on me and gave me
horses.

I saw a bird singing. I saw a man driving a herd of horses with this bird tied to
his head and singing. These were the words of his song: —

com barerok, itsire itsem be wik'.

Wherever I go, horse a good one I shall have.

The man was riding a pinto horse. I heard someone say to me, "When he does that,

he brings good horses." I don't know where this dream came from.

Another way of getting visions is to go out hunting and have dreams, but those

obtained from thirsting are the strongest: the men who fasted became chiefs and

were lucky at everything.

Arm-round-the-neck' s narrative is interesting for several reasons.
For one thing, it expresses the behef that ordinary dogs possess the
power of granting a vision. Secondly, we find a definite rejection of
quasi-totemic taboos inasmuch as Arm-round-the-neck did not scruple
to kill bears. On this point the attitude of the natives varies somewhat,
but all agreed that no man who had dreamt of buffalo would for that
reason refrain from kilUng or eating them. Finally, the transfer, as it
were, of the bear medicine from a clansman is noteworthy, since in other
cases medicines are known to have descended from father to son.

328 Anthropological Papers American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XXV,

Old-dog had- never gone out to fast but had dreamt while sleeping
in his tent. He dreamt of the Tobacco. Another dream, however, is
indirectly derived from a vision. His brother had fasted and seen a
little axiaxipe (kind of buzzard?), which appeared in human guise,
painted his face, and sang against the enemy. He gave Old-dog his
medicine power with four feathers of this bird, and Old-dog subsequently
dreamt of taking a gun from the enemy and striking him. He attributes
the dream to his brother's medicine. Thereafter, when he saw the enemy,
my informant painted his face, tied the feathers to his head, sang towards
the enemy, and would take a gun or strike a first coup.

Young-crane told of a man named He-calls-fat {irdpi'tsec) who had
been visited by the Dipper while awake and sitting down. He would
send out captains of war parties and bid them bring horses and other
booty. The Seven Stars told him they would take him back when he was
going to die. He told his people he had to die soon and it came true.

Bull-all-the-time, who secured a martial vision through torture and
fasting, was also blessed with another for doctoring while he was
asleep in his tipi. He saw a horse fastened to a rope, which was length-
ened up to him. He heard a person sing. The horse was a sign that my
informant would get horses as fees for his cures. He was told that if
anyone fell sick he was to doctor him. He saw an old man decorated
with red paint and holding a pipe in his hand. This man was standing
over the recumbent patient and blew through a pipestem over him. The
sick man rose and then sat down. Bull-all-the-time saw all the sickness
come out of the patient's blood and saw him get well. Bull-all-the-time
showed me the pipestem he had dreamt of; it had a horse's track incised
near one end.

Gray-bull recounted the following as an experience of his grand-
father's while awake in his tent : —

A white-headed bird sat at the door, looked round and hopped inside to the side
of the lodge opposite the visionary, whose wife was away at the time. My grandfather
looked at the bird, which merely sat there. He looked again, and it had turned into a
man with painted face and on his head was a bird of the kind seen before. He sang a
song and at its close he said, "I'll come tomorrow and see you again with my wife.
You have seen what I wanted you to see. I was going to let you see many things,
but your wife is coming." When he had said this, he was a bird once more and went
out. My grandfather went after him and saw him flying up the river. His wife got
to the tent. She had seen the bird. When she had brought in the firewood, she asked
her husband, "What is that bird I saw coming out of the tent? What is it?" "I
don't know."

1922.] Lowie, Religion of the Crow. 329

The next day he went for horses. When he returned, his wife was looking for
wood. The people were going to camp there for four days. The woman cooked. He
ate and told his wife to get three or four packs of wood so she might stay away longer.
She went for the wood. He lay on his bed and watched the door. A bird came in and
hopped where he sat and another followed. Both sat on the other side of the tipi and
looked somewhere. One turned into a man, the other into a woman. The man said
to the woman: "Give one song to my child." "All right." My grandfather sat up,
and the woman sang. When she had finished, the man said to my grandfather, "Look
at me." He did. His face was painted as before and a bird was tied to his head. "I
have given you one song already, that is my only song. Whenever I want to use this
bird on my head, I let a woman tie it and think at the same time that the enemy can-
not shoot me." The woman said: "I have plenty of things and horses, and whenever
I meet enemies they are easily captured. This is all." They changed into birds
again, hopped to the door and went out. Until then my grandfather had done nothing
in war and his joking relatives made fun of him. He had not even gone out with war
parties.

Some time after this my grandfather saw someone kill one of these birds and asked
the slayer to give him the body. He cut off its head and tail, also the wing bone for a
whistle, and took them home with him. He called in all the chiefs. When all were in,
his wife roasted some ribs and when they were through eating he made them smoke.
One asked what this was for. He asked them to tell him how they dreamt and got
medicines. All told how they had fasted and dreamt. When all had had their say,
he said he was going to make his medicine, but found out that it was not good, that is,
not like any they had told. The chiefs asked him to tell about it. He told them that
into his very tent two birds had come and shown him something, bidding him make
whatever he saw. He asked whether they knew anything like that to have been seen
by a Crow before. They told him to make his medicine, to sew together the head and
the tail of the bird. When he had done so, he sang the songs the bird-man had sung
for him, telling his wife to sit and sing with him. After they were through, he told his
visitors to see how it should turn out. He told all the chiefs he was going to take care
of the entire tribe thereafter, that was why he made medicine. He gave them more
to eat; they smoked and went out. The chiefs said to one another, "We'll see how
it comes out, it is great medicine that he has made."

It was in the fall of the year. There were about forty enemies in a trench that
fall. My grandfather came on a white horse, his face painted like that of the man in
the dream, and the medicine tied to his head. He asked the Crow fighters whether
anyone had struck a coup, then went to the coulee where were the enemy. He got to
the bank and went to one of the enemy, who shot my grandfather, singeing his hair.
He took away a gun from the enemy, laid it down, and went to the next man, who had
a bow. This one broke the string of his bow. My grandfather took the bow and
arrow away from him and went back. The people then knew his medicine to be true.
After that he kept on striking coups and became a chief. He made one bird medicine
for his son, who also became chief. The birds were real birds, and they themselves
gave the medicine. The Crow believe the birds themselves have medicine powers.

It will be seen later that the medicine was subsequently transmitted
to Gray-bull himself and determined one of his fasting visions Cp.
336).

330 Anthropological Papers American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XXV,

In the foregoing narrative the fact that supernatural powers are
ascribed to the birds themselves is noteworthy. It tallies with certain
statements of various informants, e.g., Arm-round-the-neck's comments'
on the vision granted by dogs (p. 327), but is contradicted by others, who
regard the animals as mere messengers of potent spirits. Presumably
v\e here have to reckon with individual differences of interpretation.
Another feature of importance is the patrilineal transmission of the
medicine (but compare p. 335) . Finally, the pragmatic test of the value
of a vision is highly characteristic.

It is clear that some of these painless visions were reckoned on a
par with those for which suffering was undergone, but this does not
apply to all cases. For example, Little-rump, who speaks of himself as
having tried to get visions but failed, did, as a matter of fact, get un-
sought communications from the Yellow Tobacco, though obviously he
does not regard them as comparable in worth to those of others, presum-
ably because in spite of them he has remained poor. He hears the
Tobacco sing songs. "Some of them I consider sacred. When I hear a
song and have good luck immediately after that, then I consider the
song sacred."

Unsought Stress Visions.

Another category of visions, though not formally recognized as
such by the natives, includes experiences not deliberately sought but
undergone in times of stress or under other conditions out of the ordinary.
One of Lone-tree's visions may be reckoned of this class since it was ob-
tained during his flight from the enemy : —

We went against the Dakota ; there were nine of us. I was still young and some-
one else was captain. I did the scouting every day. We got to the camp but the
Dakota discovered us and we ran away in different directions, five one way, three
besides myself another way. The Dakota caught only the former and killed them all.
The rest, all young boys, got home in safety. Far this side of Bismarck, North
Dakota, I thought of swimming the Missouri. Just before we got to the river, while
still among the rocky hills, we saw big heavy clouds presaging a thunderstorm. I bade
the others seek shelter under rocks, saying, "I'll watch for a while." As I was seated
on a rock, I watched the hailstorm coming and saw the lightning quite near me.
When the storm got very close, I thought I should also seek shelter. Before I got
up I saw a big bird coming down from among the clouds. His color was white and he
was as large as the white building at the Mission. His head faced south. In descend-
ing to the ground he made no noise. I saw him plainly. The lightning came from his
eyes. He sat down on the ground. As soon as he did so, we could see smoke as though
from an engine. The hailstorm did not come near but left a circle free round the bird
and me. I watched the eagle going back up into the clouds. He said, 'T live up in the
heavens, I am going to adopt you, that is why I came. down. Whatever you ask for,

1922.] Lowie, Religion of the Crow. 331

we shall hear you . " Each hailstone was as big as a fist. That evening we crossed the
Missoiiri. This was the first time I dreamt about him. The second night I heard the
hailstones caUing ore another and saying, "Whatever you shall ask, we shall do it for
you. I am the High Thunder (sua)."

Lone-tree got large white beads for a necklace to represent the
hailstones.

Three-wolves in referring to Lone-tree's experience added the detail
that the lightning struck the lake and something came out of it. Then
Lone-tree saw a taloned bird as large as a tree flying from cloud to cloud
and saying, "If you shall go to a flat rock, I will see you." Lone-tree
was afraid to go; nevertheless he considered the Thunder his medicine
and henceforth carried the head of a bald-headed eagle with him (see
below, p. 335). When Short-bull offended him, Lone-tree said, "You will
nearly die this summer." Short-bull was struck by hghtning, but was
not killed. Sometimes Lone-tree would take a big white bead (evidently
from the necklace mentioned above), put it on a child's head and make
hail. He could stop a storm and also cause rain. Big-ox had the same
power.

Instances of this type of supernatural experience occur repeatedly
in the myths. For example, a man and his wife reduced to extreme des-
titution through the husband's faiUng eyesight are suddenly visited by
the Moon, who bids them send out young men on a horse raid; the raid
is successful and the impoverished couple become wealthy. Again-, a
young woman who has been bhnded, crippled, and abandoned by her
husband is doctored by a white-tailed deer and an owl, while the compas-
sionate brother-in-law who provided her wants till his strength is ex-
hausted is aided by a snake-man. Similarly, a benevolent dwarf rescues
from starvation a poor young man and his sweetheart, who have been
driven away by the camp tyrant.^ Sometimes the supernatural beings
are explicitly represented as cognizant of the visionary's distress and
attempting to relieve it either in person or through a messenger. The
dwarf's wife chides him for his dilatoriness in succoring the sufferer:
"'Bring my son soon,' I said, you have done it late, they almost
died." The snake-man says to his protege: "I pitied you long ago, but
never reached you." In the legend of Big-iron the hero has been aban-
doned by his cruel stepfather and a supernatural being in the guise of an
old man sends mountain-sheep to bring him to his island.^

ithis volume, 186, 190, 171.
Hbid., 291.

332 Anthropological Papers American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XXV,

Sought Visions.

We may now turn to cases in which there was a dehberate quest of
a revelation. These were probably the most numerous, but by no means
all attempts to secure visions met with success, as has already been noted.
Little-rump, e.g., often tried to get a vision but invariably failed. Some-
times the quest was abandoned from exhaustion or fear. A female in-
formant, e.g., went out to fast for three days when mourning a deceased
relative, but left after the second day because she suddenly saw a grave
she had not previously noticed. Being afraid of the dead, she went off
before the close of the period set by herself.

There was no lunitation either as to age or sex, so far as seeking a
vision was concerned. Little boys sometimes fasted, not because their
parents had urged them but probably because they had listened to others
talking about visions and desired to try it for themselves. On the other
hand, middle-aged and even old men would go out fasting. Young girls
did not seek visions, but when older they might and did. Usually this
happened when a relative had been killed by the enemj'^ or even died a
natural death. Thus, Young-crane chopped off a finger joint when her
first husband was killed and fasted for two days after her daughter's
decease, though without receiving a revelation. It is true, however, that
the number of would-be male visionaries Avas greater than that of the
women, and that it was commonly adolescent men who were eager to
get a communication that should enable them to gain martial glory and
consequent prestige.

It is noteworthy that according to all infoimants there was no ex-
ternal prompting of the youth to undergo the rigors of fasting and
self-torture : he went out because of the tales heard about the camp-fire
and because he observed the success of those who had gone and obtained
revelations.

The principal methods of inducing a vision have already been enum-
erated. Doubtless the most usual was to fast and thirst for several days,
a procedure designated as hirictsandud, (not drinking water). The
would-be visionary generally retired to a lonety peak, theoretically for
four days, in consonance with the mystic notions clustering about that
nunfibei', possibly in addition chopping off a finger-joint as an offering to
conciliate the spirits invoked. That these might differ as to identity,
has already been set forth, though the Sun or Old-Man-Coyote was
most frequently addressed. The faster was virtually naked, using a
buffalo skin f or a blanketat night. Accordingto Flat-head-woman, he would
lie on his back with legs stretched out, the arms extended at the sides and
facing east all night; his bedding was framed by rocks on both sides.

1922.] Lowie, Religion of the Crow. 333

Before citing accounts of individual visions it may be well to quote
some generic remarks by White-arm: —

Of my contemporaries I take the lead in visionary ejqjeriences. Parents did not
tell children to go out if they were well off. But if they were poor, a boy would decide
not to remain so but to go out, fast, and thereby come to own property. Strips of
flesh were cut off and placed on a buffalo chip, and some such prayer as the following
was addressed to the Sun : —

kahe, isa'kaxaria, (raising the buffalo chip), bi watseck'atem, mi arakak".
Hallo, old Old Man, I am poor, me you see,

ma+itsem bakiV. mi' xarie, itsirem bgwi, Qwut'baraxia burutsiwi,
something good give me. Me makeold, ahorse maylhave, gun may I take,

dakce maritbi. ml batsetsi, mi k'ua ml wiraxbSki makurua

a coup may I strike. I a chief, I without help may I become a person plenty

(make a living)

WEwi.
may I have.

The Sun's name, dx'ace, maj' be used in crying for a vision; in mourning the
diminutive dxack'at is used. Any name pertaining to a father, father's clansman, or
grandfather, may be applied to the Sun. The Sun's name may be used in cursing,

e.g.:—

ax'ac bakO, To the sun I have given him, or (emphatically) : ax'ac bakace, To
the Sun I have verily given him.

If a man wants a horse, he will cut out a piece of his flesh in the shape of a horse-
shoe. The morning before going out he swims, takes a clean robe, and at daybreak
goes to the hill selected for fasting. When the sun came up, I made my cut. Some-
times this is done on the second day. Some stayed out four days. I stayed two days
or one day. A forked stick is planted the evening before the sacrifice. An old man is
sought to pray for the young man. He paints the young man with white clay, prays
to the sun and pierces the taster's breasts or the body near the shoulder parts and
fastens him to the forked stick. The would-be visionary runs round the stick and the
old man goes home. When tired, the visionary- sits down, then runs round again.
Some break the flesh, others do not. In the evening, the old man comes and cuts at
the edge of the dried flesh, then leaves the young man. He shows the dried flesh to the
Sun and prays anew, while the visionary sleeps there again during the night. Any
time at night a vision might be seen. First we see a person in a vision or dream, but a
few days later, perhaps while we are sleeping, the person seen is recognized as some
particular animal that had changed into a person. Sometimes they found out directly
through the song. In the song the visitant might say, "I am a snake" (or buffalo, or
horse, etc.) If a man has a visicn cf a .sr,ake, all srakes will be fathers to him.
Some would pick up a snake after such a vision, saying, "darnke blk' ;" (I am your
son), and the snake would not bite him.

Some were adopted by a bear. While they were asleep at home some one might
strike the sole of a visionary's foot, then he would awake, make a noise like a bear,
and a bear's tooth would come out of his mouth. This is one way of knowing the
species of the animal giving the vision.

People who have seen a snake, do not kill snakes. I don't know how bear
visionaries act in this regard. The latter put red paint from the eyes down the face in
slanting lines and knot their hair to imitate bear's ears, and use a bearskin for a

334 Anthropological Papers Aynerican Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XXV,

blanket. Bear people when in a trance {kaxutuk) use isk (Joe Cooper says, wild
parsnip) incense, then they will come to. Strong men catch these entranced ones from
behind, for they try to bite and act like bears. They may go into a trance whenever
the sole of their feet or their face is struck.

Sometimes the Sun himself appeared to the visionary, but mostly animals came.
These I do not think are related to the Sun at all. When men are praying, the Sun is
first thought of, but generally other beings appear. After returning from a quest, the
faster made a sweatlodge and all the famous people were called in ; while they were
assembled in the sweatlodge the visionary told his vision, and the audience afterwards
told the other people. Srake visionaries are mostly doctors, e.g., Flat-dog; the snake
tells them how to treat the sick. Some would smell the incense in a vision and thus
know what weed to use for medicine.

Some are deceived by visions, go out on the warjjath, and get killed, but not many
are fooled about doctoring. Wraps-up-his-tail slept near Sheridan, had visions, and
told everyone, yet he was killed. Sometimes everything told in a vision is false;
perhaps some animal plays the part of another. It never happened that old men
detected the deceit in a vision and warned the visionary when he told them. They only
find out from what happens later.

It is clear that White-arm's final remarks completely corroborate
Gray-bull's account as to the testing of a vision by the visionary's
subsequent success. The quasi-totemic attitude ascribed to snake vision-
aries was certainly not shared by other Indians, as already pointed out.
My informant's statement regarding- the Sun is significant and agrees
with data secured from some of my most trustworthy authorities.
That is to say, the Sun as the most dominant single figure in the native
religious consciousness is supplicated in the first instance, but rarely
appears. Instead there come other beings "not related" to the Sun,
which presumably means not dispatched by him but independently
taking pity on the faster's distress.

From these general remarks we may now tm-n to some individual
accounts. I will begin with Lone-tree, who had other supernatural
revelations besides the one that came unsought from the Thunder.

Once I went on a high mountain and cut off a strip of my flesh with a knife.
When I had fasted for three days and nights I saw the Dipper. It was towards
morning. The Dipper gave me a little food, sitting down beside me as a man and
saying he had brought me some food because I was hungry. "What you are eating is
human flesh," said the Dipper after giving me the food. I did not know it was the
Dipper, but something at the back of my head was whispering to me, "The man
giving you food is the Dipper." After he had told me that the food was human I
could not swallow it but vomited what I had eaten. Then the Dipper rose and
walked off. I looked and saw his long braided hair hanging down in the back, and
on the long queue were the Seven Stars. Then I believed that it was the Dipper.
The next morning I got home.

1922.] Lowie, Religion of the Crow. 335

During the winter I cut scars on my arms and went into the hills. There was a
clump of trees and on one of them there was a nest. Not knowing that it belonged
to the Bald-headed Eagle, I lay down. At night it stormed violently. I slept and
dreamt I was in a big lodge and saw the Bald-headed Eagle sitting there. I was told
that the Dakota were my only enemies and that I was to be a captain. It came true
and I defeated the Dakota about ten times. People said I was the best captain.

The Bald-headed Eagle of this vision is undoubtedly connected with
the Thunder (see above).

Big,-ox, one of the most famous shamans of recent times (see p. 344),
had become feeble-minded when I knew him and only supplied a very
fragmentary account of his visions: —

I slept on a mountain and chopped off a joint of my little finger. I saw a bird,
which made me a chief . The birds sat round me; they had human heads. Five balls
of different color were in front of me, one of them pure white. I sat there and some of
the birds vanished without my knowing it until only one sat by me. This last one told
me I should be a great chief and that he would not forget me. "We shall constantly
watch you." He repeated this twice. He flew away without my seeing him go.

I saw the No-drum (bira'xdete) dance in the daytime in the Wolf Mountains. A
white woman and a white man gave me the vision and a Crow spoke to me in Crow.
They gave me the stick I carry around, painted yellow and decorated with bells and
feathers.

Owing to his latter experience, dating from the period of his senility,
for which reason no one but himseh took it seriously, Big-ox was nick-
named No-drum in the last years of his Ufe. It is not clear whether he
underwent any suffering in this case or received his revelation unsought.

Flat-dog once went out to fast and get a vision. He had his back
pierced and a horse tied to it, while on the other side he attached a war-
bonnet to his pierced skin. Towards evening the horse got restless,
being thirsty, and jerked Flat-dog's skin. Then he pulled out the stick
to which the horse was tied and freed him. He fell asleep at night, tired
out with his exertions and as good as dead. He saw a man come to
him, who said, "Now you will remain alive a long time, you are poor
now, you will be a person. I'll keep you a person for a long time {di
wirdxhike de-md-wi-ma'sik').'' Flat-dog added: "Today people speak
of me as old, then I tliink of this statement. My face was covered,
nevertheless I saw the person."

One of Gray-bull's experiences forms an interesting sequel to his
grandfather's vision (p. 329). Before dying the grandfather had given
his medicine to Gray-bull's mother, bidding her turn it over to her son
when he should be a young man. He still had the medicine at the time of
my interview with him. His narrative follows: —

336 Anthropological Papers American Museum of Natural Histonj. [Vol. XXV,

I fasted with this medicine and got a dream. I saw a bird flying over me in a
circle. It descended and went down into a canyon whistling. On both sides there
were rocks. The rocks began to shoot at the bird but failed to hit it, so that it came
out imhurt. It had nothing tied to its head and when I heard shooting from the
rocks I did not see anything either. The bird had a white head and tail. I did not
know that I could not be shot till long afterwards. I was never shot. I kept my
dreams secret, for I was afraid if I told them I might get shot. Once many Piegan
were lying under a pine tree. One was some distance in front of us. We started out
toward the Piegan. He shot at me when I was just above him but did not hit me.
My horse went round as though dizzy and ran off. That night I dreamt and someone
said to me, "Don't you know that you cannot be shot?"

The conceptions involved in this vision recall corresponding Hidatsa
usages by which sacred objects descended from father to son and where
the blessing of a vision was expected from the spirits associated with the
paternal bundle. The tenor of the vision, i.e., the appearance of a
person shot at but remaining unscathed is very common and should be
compared with Scratches-face's as well as with some legendary experi-
ences.^

The same informant had another experience, which is described

below: —

I rose before sunrise, got my horse ready and went to Long-horse,"^ my father's
clansman, and asked him to help me. So we went out before sunrise. I gave him
four presents. He painted my bod.y with white clay and sang a song, telling a few of
his warlike exploits, then he pierced my shoulder with an arrow, inserted a stick and
tied a horse to it; to the other shoulder he fastened a shield and some other medicine.
They moved camp that morning. I followed, leading the horse. During the day the
horse got continually more and more unruly, getting hungry and thirsty. After a
while I turned to look at him and saw a stripe on one of his legs; had I seen two
stripes I should have become a greater chief. I stopped there for the night and Long-
horse came to free the horse and remove the medicine. I did not go back to camp,
but stayed out and when I slept I dreamt. I saw a gray horse with a stripe on his leg
standing in the very spot where Long-horse had removed the medicine. Someone
talked behind me, saying, "This horse belongs to the Dakota." I did not see anyone.
After this I went to. war and captured a gray horse. I struck coups, captured guns,
and achieved the other deeds of a chief, riding the gray horse. The stripe was a sign
for striking coups. I named my grandson 'Chief-with-the-gray-horse' {tsicdkaxi-
watsttsic).

The most interesting detail in the foregoing narrative is the mode of
self-torture employed, which exactly parallels one reported for the
Hidatsa at the time of the Sun dance.

'See this volume, 184, 271.
*A verv famous warrior.

1922.] Lowie, Religion of the Croir. 337

Scratches-face, whose generic account of visions has ah-eady been
cited, recounted the following personal narrative. It was not without
some difficulty and considerably higher compensation than usual that
he was prevailed upon to narrate this experience.

I fasted because three of my brothers (akiipe) had been killed, one at Pine Ridge,
one on the other side of the Bighorn Mountains, one between Bighorn and Pryor.
When an Indian had an akupe, he could take anything they had and give it away.
When all of mine were killed, I was alone, had no horses nor anything else.

I went on a mountain, chopped off a finger joint, and gave it to Old-Woman's-
Grandson, saying: —

Karicbapitua, hine warakuk, iwice itsia wakii.

Old-Woman's-Grandson, this I give you, pay good give me.

I cried out aloud a great deal. I wanted some animal or something else to help me.
Before chopping my finger off, I held it toward the sky, praying and thus speaking to
Grandson, "I do not steal nor do any other bad things, and you have known me.
That is why I'm poor." When I had said this, I chopped off my finger. I cried, say-
ing, "I am poor, give me a good horse. I want to strike one of the enemies and when I
go on a good road I want to marry a good-natured woman. I want a tipi to live in
that I shall own myself."

I fasted on the mountain near where Joliet now is. I slept one night, the next
day chopped off my finger, and on the second day, about this time of day, I did not
know anything then, the blood running from my hand. Far in the night I came to
again and looked round; it was night and cold. I made a bed out of sagebrush and
grass; on it I laid logs. When I fainted, I held my hand on my breast on the side I
had cut; half of my body was all covered with blood. When I got up, I went to my
bed. My arm ached and I could not sleep. On the third day I got up and sat down.
I waG very thirsty, but thought I should stay there till the following night. On the
night of the third day I went to bed and tried to sleep but could not because it was too
cold. Sometimes I heard footsteps as if of a person coming toward me, but looking
up I saw no one. After a while I went to sleep. While asleep I heard a man clearing
his throat; also the snort of a horse. I heard someone talking. "What are you doing?
You wanted him to come. Now he has come." This is what I heard. My feet faced
east and my head west. I heard someone ccmirg toward me from the west and then
standing on my right side. I saw men riding on horses, which were prancing round.
I heard little bells. They got nearer to my side and I faced toward them and looked
at them. They were not men or horses but shadows of these. One man was riding a
bobtailed horse and had painted his horse with a lightning mark on all four legs. His
horse was like fire. There were six of them, the rest were riding grays and blacks.
The shadows were black. The rider of the bobtailed horse was like fire too. His
r ar braid reached the ground, the rest of his hair was clipped short. "I will show
you what you want to see. You have been poor, so I'll give you what you want."
The rider of the bcbtail .'-aid, "I am going to run." All the trees and everything
growing around there then turned into men and began shooting at them. They just
kept on going to the east and I continued watching till they were invisible. The dust
flew up to the sky. It flew up again on the east side of the horizon, where the riders
had gone, and there I heard a lot of talking. After a while they got out of there and
came back. They came and passed behind me. I heard them yelling and whistling.

338 Anthropological Papers American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XXV,

They came and stood in front of me. The rider of the bobtail said to me: "If you
want to fight all the people on the earth, do as I do and you will be able to fight for
three or four days and yet not be shot." All the six horsemen started eastward.
The rider of the bobtail held a sprar; it was Uke fire. They were shooting as before.
This rider knocked the people down with his spear. The dust fiew up to the sky.
Then followed a hailstorm. The hailstones were as big as my fist and knocked down
those shooting at the horsemen. I saw them riding around in the storm. This storm
was the Thunder and helped the six riders; it was caused by a man with wings.
When I went out with the soldiers against an Indian tribe up north and fought in
battle, I did just what I had seen in my dream. The fight started at about 8 a.m.
I was not shot. They killed an enemy; I struck him first. I fasted in the spring when
eighteen years old. Ever since then I have owned good and fast horses; even today
I have one. I prayed for a good-natured and hard-working woman; my present wife
to whom I have been married about thirty years is like that.

It is not certain whether White-arm's vision came unsought or was
merely sought without tortures. It is interesting because it embodies the
reminiscences of a convert to Christianity : —

I slept near Horn's place. During my sleep I saw a person riding a brown horse
toward the top of a mountain and singing. He came towards me. I noticed all the
feathers and other ornaments tied to his horse. The isalsise (species of hawk) was
painted on his horse's neck. I took a wing of this bird and used it for my horse's
necklace. This person sang a song: —

maraka, bawardxe dik'uku. awe wa'kuhe k'ok'. marakd diawd,tsisuk.

My child, to my song listen. The ground my ear is. My child we love you.

I joined the Church and now the one who gave me the song is teasing me at night, but
I won't listen to him. I was under thirty years old when I went out for a vision for the
first time. I was one of the poorest in the tribe, that's why I went. Some other
times I went out, but never had a vision. I got the first one without torture, while
I got no vision out of my later tortures. Before going for a vision a man took a bath,
put on good clothes, and abstained from sexual intercourse. Bull-all-the-time has a
bear for his medicine; he is a big shaman.

Bull-all-the-time has already been mentioned for his doctoring
vision. In addition he had some fasting experiences, wliich unfortunately
were not very fully described by him.

On the other side of the Musselshell there is a mountain called Buffalo-heart
(bice-rasec). There I slept and cut my left forearm. They showed me that I should
become a chief. In my sleep I saw Pryor Gap and beheld a person holding out a
blanket and making a sign for me to come over. The Indians began to move, and I
went to the place where I had been called and fasted there. In my sleep I saw a
person holding out a blanket and making a sign for me to come over. The Indians
began to move, and I went to the place where I had been called and fasted there.
In my sleep I saw a person coming with a war party's pipe and at the end of the stem
was tied human hair in token of a killing. He sang : —

&wk condak awiia aworak.

Country (in) any as I climb and come up.

1922.] Lowie, Religion of the Crow. 339

At (?) I fasted and heard a snake rattling in the distance. It came closer.

It was a rattlesnake and threw something out of its mouth,- — yellow paint. I made a
cloth representation of the snake, painted it with yellow paint and stiU have it.

I told other Indians about my visions.

An interesting experience was described by Hillside:—

I was about twenty years old, and among the Many Lodges band. Over at
White Mountain a big buffalo was killed. Its head was cut off and its hide skinned,
leaving the tail on. I had myself cut in two places on the back and dragged the skull
outside the camp. The people all saw me. My brother, the same who had made the
arrow for me, pierced my back.* I started early in the moi-ning and traveled all day
with the skull; when the sun was low I was too weak to drag it any longer. I went to
the mountain with it, my brother cut it off, and I slept on the skull for a pillow. It
was raining hard. In my sleep I heard a man say: "Wait, poor fellow, you will eat
now!" He had the foot of a buffalo on him. On the Pryor side I saw a large crowd
of people with this person in the lead. When I was a.sleep, a buffalo came up to me and
licked me. His hair was gray; this showed that I was to live to be an old man. His
being leader showed that I was to be a leader of my people. The buffalo snorted while
licking me. Leaders were supposed to carry good luck for the whole camp. I made a
buffalo skin to represent my dream. While dragging the skull I was fasting. The
buffalo was my real visitant; he had transformed himself into a person. On another
occasion I dragged a skull. Medicine-crow's father told me that he and I were the
only ones that had dragged a buffalo skull twice.

Muskrat's narrative derives interest from the fact that it represents
the religious experiences of a woman : —

I was a young woman and was pregnant after my husband's death. I was out
mourning the death of my husband and fell asleep. In my sleep I saw a person come
up to me who said, "Take and chew that weed, and you'll give birth without suffer-
ing." I came back and it happened as I was told. The name of the weed is batskklce.
1 used the leaves, boiled them, and drank the infusion. In the same year I went out
mourning for my brother (bakupe). I had no dream till the fourth time. I had a
vision of the bickwarucise (buffalo-do-not-eat-it) weed. I was told: "This is better
and more powerful than the other one." It was for the same purpose, before the
birth of the child. As to the first weed, I was told never to pull out any myself, except
when about to use it for medicine. Whenever anyone touches the buffalo-weed, I
get into a trance (kdxutsek'). The way to get over the trance is to chew some of the
weed. No one is supposed to touch my face or any part of my body with it. I have a
horse inside me. Whenever the Bear Song dance is performed, I am forced over to the
site. One time I was doing some beadwork while the Bear Song dance was going on in
another part of the camp. I sat down, paying no attention, but it was just as if some
power forced me to go there. I threw off my blanket. I heard voices, "There's one
going already." Before I arrived, I was out of my senses, and the tail of a horse came
out of my mouth. I was married to Bad-man's father at this time. People were
astonished to see this. They took warts from a horse's leg, made incense therefrom,
smoked me with it, and thus brought the horse tail back into my body again. Even

^I saw the scars — R. H. L. For the arrow referred to see p. 391.

340 Afithropological Papers American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XXV,

when children bump against me, this tail will come out. So I always keep some
horse wart about me. If people with a batsirape do not get proper incense in time, they
die.

I also got weasel medicine. My Weasel parents (in the Tobacco society) gave me
a weasel. There was an old man and his wife known as the Weasels; very few were in
their chapter. They took the weasel away from me after giving it to me. Then I
felt grirved, went out fasting, and had a vision of a weasel. I went to the mountains to
fast, and could not sleep all night. A cloud came up. I went to the rocks for shelter
and lay down to sleep. A weasel appeared and came on my neck, causing a queer
feeling. He went into my stomach. I heard the weasel whistling with all his might.
I woke up and looked round, but saw nothing. The weasel said: "This is what we
want to give you." Then he gave me a whistle. He sang a song. This is the main
part of the song: —

uute ik'uctsiiruk". ope ik'uctsiwa'tsgwik'.

The weaselsare coming out. The Tobacco I'll make come out.

Ever since I have had control of the Weasel chapter and through me it has become so
renowned. Once an old man told me to get up and dance, and I got up and sang the
song. The weasel warns me against having people strike my kidneys, lest I get into a
trance thereby.

Both a horse and a weasel are inside of my body. Only lately I dreamt I owned
some weasels and soon after a weasel was brought to me. People respect me and take
care lest something bumps against me. Sometimes I dream of a horse and afterwards
come to own it.

When I was out fasting, a gray horse came up to me and went into my stomach.
He told me he should enter me. After the latsir6pe once gets in, it does not go out. I
doctor horses if they can't make water. I chew something and put it in their mouth.
Then they can make water. I use chewing tobacco. Tobacco is one of my main
medicines, I alwaj's have plenty on hand to doctor with.

I was fasting on a mountain, having heard that a man had slept there. I put
down new bedding. While I lay there, I saw bald-headed hawks (?) but the eagle got
ahead of them, jumped towards me, and shook one wing after the other, all in order
to scare me. He came up to me and scared me. He shook his wing and one feather
fell out. It was the Tobacco. I use Tobacco as one of my main medicines, as a lini-
ment; ist is also used as a liniment; incense is made of it. I also d ctor broken bones.
Some women chop off their fingers when seeking a vision; many women did it. Twice
I got a vision when staying out only one day; the other times I had to fast for three
days.

The Sun is the main thing I prayed to when I went out; but when I lay down to
sleep I prayed to the ground-cedar and the sagebrush. The ground-cedar is owned by
the Sun, I don't know who owns the sagebrush. I was fasting once and the Sun told
me where to go to sleep. I went there and found many medicine-rocks (bacoritsi'tse).
Thus I got plenty of property. Red paint was given to me at the same time. The
Sun gave me power to make clouds. When a man leaves his wife, I can charm him
and make him live with her a long time.

As is pointed out in my paper on the Tobacco ceremony, the bdtsirape
motive was very prominent among the Crow Indians, and Muskrat's
account of the weasel vision is one of the clearest expositions of what the

1922.] Lowie, Religion of the Crow. 341

natives imagine to happen in such cases. Crazy-head, according to
Young-crane, had a frog for his bdtsirape, and in the winter it was heard
croaking in his throat. The general conception of the bdtsirape is ap-
parently found also among the Menomini.^

In studying the Tobacco society I obtained several descriptions of
revelations, which I will merely summarize here since they have already
appeared in full form.

Medicine-crow prayed to the Sun, cutting off a finger joint, and was
visited by a young man and a young woman, who were identical with the
Tobacco plant and gave him instructions for the foundation of the
Strawberry chapter. On another occasion when mourning a comrade
he saw a crane and was led to substitute a bird of this species for the
otter formerly carried in the Tobacco planting procession. The crane
showed him a scalp, and he subsequently killed a Dakota.

Big-shoulder-blade had a similar adventure with buffalo transformed
into young men wearing buffalo caps and promising vengeance for the
death of his brother. In consequence he founded the Buffalo chapter
and killed an enemy about as old as his brother.

Sore-tail was very poor and went out to fast. The Sun visited him
as he was lying on his blanket and said, "I'll send you my messenger."
He sent the Eagle, who showed him a special kind of lodge and taught
him a song. In consequence he founded the Eagle chapter and became
the very richest of all the Crow. Anyone who wanted to go on the war-
path would consult him and he sent them out with a blue feather on the
neck. He even sent out a woman with this medicine and she came back
victorious.

In 1910 Medicine-crow told me of a vision, which may be connected
in his mind with the Tobacco society since a strawberry appears, but he
did not explicitly state that he recognized such an association. His
account follows: —

I would pray during any season of the year. Fasting makes men of Indians. At
this season of the year (summer) I once fasted where there were plenty of skulls;
on the other side there was a high place. I spent four days and nights without drink-
ing anything. On the fourth morning I heard in the west a shout and a whistling
sound resembling that made by a railroad train. I heard it four times, then I heard a
voice say, "There is something coming to meet you from over there." I looked in
that direction and saw something coming. It approached and I beheld a white man,
a young man with the handsomest face, standing before me. Had he spoken to me in
English, I might be able to speak English, but he addressed me in Crow. Had I
been a white man and seen the vision, I think I should be wealthy today. The young

'Skinner, vol. XIII, this series, pp. 42, 45.

342 Anthropological Papers American Museum, of Xatural History. [Vol. XXV,

man said, "You are poor and I have known this for a long time. All the people
around here will always know about you and hear about you; you will be a chief."
Having said this, he yawned as though from sleepiness, and I saw that his teeth were
all gold. He had something pinned on in front which smelled sweetly and turned out
to be a strawberry. He said, pointing east, "A great many whites are in that direction;
you will be taken there four times. The last time you will be an old man." Since
then I have been taken East once and still expect to be taken three times.

The foregoing data will suffice to bring out the main characteristics
of Crow visions. Since the vision concept enters into every aspect of
Crow life, additional illustrations will be found in other parts of this
paper and in publications on the whole devoted to other phases of culture.

Though I repeatedl}^ attempted to get descriptions of ordinary
dreams, I never succeeded in securing a detailed narrative. Most com-
monly my informants spoke of seeing ripe berries and themselves eating
them; or the whole country covered with snow; or the ice floating down
the river. These are quite conventional ways of designating the seasons
of the year and the assumption always is that if a person has dreamt of a
particular season he will live until the next summer or whatever portion
of the year was suggested. It is dreams of this sort that are announced
in the sudatory. For example, a man will then say, "I saw the hay crop
being cut, may we all do the same."

Even in the last years of his life Gray-bull would dream of martial
experiences by night and by day. He would see a big battle and himself
capturing a white horse. Once he dreamt the enemy were leaving a girl
behind and on coming up to her the Crow braves found that she was a
woman now living in Lodge Grass. On the day Gray-bull told me about
his dreams he had taken a sweatbath and had said there, "Raise the door,
I have seen horses, may we all have them."

A Crow girl once dreamt that she was riding a mouse loaded with
lodge poles. Dreams of flying and of falhng from a height occur.

If a person dreamt that some close relative of his had fallen ill, he
would cut off a lock of his hair on the following morning, take some
tobacco and meat, and cast all three into the water. If the relative
dreamt about is far away, the dreamer will build a sweatlodge and voice
wishes on behalf of the kinsman at each opening of the sudatory.

It is beUeved that a bug on the head makes people dream.

Bear-gets-up told me that in the spring of 1911 he had frequently
dreamt of deceased friends. At first he had not dreamt about getting
anything to eat, but .later he dreamt of himself being feasted by an old
woman of his own clan. One day when I arrived at this informant's

1922.] Lowie, Religion of the Crow. ' 343

lodge, he greeted me with the remark that he had dreamt last night of
himself engaged in conversation with me, hence I had to come: —
o^tsiac bawacf^rak hine batcirirak bats-awdxpak bari-waka+uk.

Last night I dreamt this white man mutually I with him we talked we continued.

hec hoi-matsik', ik"6t"k'.

Now he had to come, that is why.

Young-crane said she sometimes dreamt of the next winter, seeing
ice and snow. After her husband had been killed, she dreamt of him
lying down with her. This frightened her.

Dreams which definitely partake of the nature of visions have been
dealt with as such.

SHAMANS.
With reference to shamans Professor Kroeber's admirable formula-
tion of Arapaho conditions^ appUes in like measure to the Crow. There
were indeed men who had received revelations of so important a char-
acter and had shown their powers in so convincing a fashion that they
were designated as batsk maxpe. But they differed merely in degree,
not in kind, from others who had successfully sought visions, and it is
quite impossible to segregate them as a definite group from the rest of the
community. As Professor Kroeber fehcitously puts it, to do so would be
as artificial as to recognize a distinct caste of warriors in a tribe where
every one strove to achieve martial fame. Shamanism in principle has
thus been sufficiently expounded in the section on Visions. It remains to
discuss certain characteristic manifestations of shamanistic competence
at its high- water mark.

Contests.

The most dramatic exhibition of supernatural powers naturally took
the form of a contest between rival shamans. This might be waged in a
fairly amicable spirit, but was also carried on in grim earnest. Such con-
flicts are described by the term hats-nn-dutud, seizing one another's
arms;2 it represents an opponent seizing the other's arms and rendering
him helpless.

Perhaps the most serious shamanistic feud of the last half century
was that between Big-ox and White-thigh. It was repeatedly referred to
by various informants. Big-ox had had a revelation from the Thunder
and was greatly feared as a sorcerer. White-thigh was also a great
shaman, his principal charm being a medicine rock (bacoritsi'tse) . Big-
ox lay with the wife of Shows-wings, who had got his captain's medicine
from White-thigh and accordingly complained to his patron, asking that
he should do something against Big-ox. When Big-ox went on the war-
path, White-thigh caused him to meet a large hostile force, so that his
party was obhged to flee, losing many horses. Then Big-ox waited for his
rival to go out against the enemy, for both of them had the pipe (i.e.,
were captains). They were out several nights. Big-ox prayed to the
Thunder, asking that only the captain should meet with some disaster.
It rained continually and White-thigh's horse was struck by hghtning,
so they had to turn back. Each' worked against the other four times in

'A. L. Kroeber, "The Arapaho" {Bulletin, American Museum, oj Natural History, vol. 18, pt. 4,
1907), 419.

^bats, reciprocal prefix; Are, arm, dutiia, seizing.

344

1922.] Lowie, Religion of the Crow. 345

this fashion until neither ventured to go on the warpath. At last Big-ox
got angry. He drew a human image on the ground, made a hole in the
heart, blew smoke on it, and effaced the picture after saying, "You
shall be the poorest creature on earth; finally you shall be bUnd and have
to crawl on your hands and feet.''^ This came true and White-thigh
became so poor that he had no belt and had to use a rope in its place.
The bhnded man smoked against Big-ox and said, "He shall be very
poor, roam from camp to camp, and end in feeble-mindedness." This
also came true. Big-ox lost all his family, and in his old age, when I knew
him, he had to wander from one stranger's camp to another and on
account of his dotage had lost all his former prestige. Although both
predictions were verified, Big-ox is generally regarded as the victor, for
the other man died, while Big-ox in spite of his sufferings never had to go
hungry.

Big-ox's practices were evidently a compound of magic and animism-
On the one hand, he relied on the protection of Thunder, on the other he
resorted to what savors of pure imitative magic. It is said that he in-
dulged in sorcery a number of times, but suffered himself each time since
members of his family would die. Once he was found trying to smite a
woman with blindness, but was caught in the act and made to desist.
According to one statement, such practices were indulged in clandestinely
for fear of the victim's family. However, I have satisfied myself that the
notion of kiUing an evil shaman after the manner of some Shoshonean
tribes is quite foreign to the Crow. They would either try to pacify
their powerful enemy or have him combated by another medicineman.

Evil magic is called duck'uo (also applied to charming a person of
the opposite sex), and the act of smoking against some one is literally
defined by the term kus-6piu. The methods pursued are suggested above,
but accounts vary as to details. One Crow says that the picture of the
enemy is sometimes drawn near a river bank, with the head nearest the
water, whereupon the sorcerer smokes towards it and burns incense.
The water comes to wash the image away, and the sooner it does so, the
sooner the victim will die. Another informant says that a rock or baxe
weed was placed on the picture and in order to bUnd his enemy the
shaman would put ashes or charcoal on the eye of his image. The injury
planned would, of course, vary : the shaman would paralyze his victim,
strike hun with dumbness; deform him, have him killed on a warparty,

^Another informant states that he saw Big-ox dig a little hole in the ground, put in charcoal and
ground-moss (awdkotsirilhe) , smoke and blow the smoke into the hole, whereupon he covered up the pit
after saying that he was going to make his enemy poor.

346 Anthropological Papers American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XXV,

or cause him to lose his property. A common motive for the use of evil
magic seems to have been jealousy on account of a love affair with one's
wife.

I learned of one other shamanistic contest comparable to that of
White-thigh and Big-ox. The participants were Gros Ventre-horse and
Dung- face (ise-perec). Dung-face told his rival he would send him off
to another place; Gros Ventre-horse said he could not do it : "I am not a
child and will not depart." "You will not know whether you don't
go away," said Dung-face. Gros Ventre-horse answered, ''You shall be
poor and shall have no horses or tipis." Dung-face said, "You will go
off and stay in another place, it will come true." Both had their wishes
fulfilled. Gros Ventre-horse went to the Gros Ventre (Hidatsa?) and
died there, Dung-face came to have no horses at all. This was an instance
of batsdndutud.

Dung-face had another encounter with Jackrabbit which was not
quite so serious. Jackrabbit had gone out to the enemy and brought
plenty of horses. He made a song in derision of Dung-face, who went
into his tent and bade his brother bring an old Ijuffalo skull. On the
forehead he drew horsetracks and announced that these were the tracks
of the horses stolen by Jackrabbit, as well as those formerly owned by
him. He told his brother to take the head and throw it into the water,
saying, "These are Jackrabbit's horses." Dung-face said, "Then Jack-
rabbit will not have any horses." The Crow broke camp and ascended
the Little Horn. The enemy came and stole all of Jackrabbit's horses.
Dung-face followed their tracks, caught the enemy, killed two of them,
and recovered all the horses. Now he owned Jackrabbit's horses.
Jackrabbit paid him for four of them, l)ut Dung-face kept the rest.

More commonly the rivalry of shamans assmned milder forms.
Three-wolves told of a case which was also mentioned by others. There
was one medicineman who would not permit any visitors to touch the
fire in the center of his lodge. Another shaman heard of this and paid his
rival a visit. He found two or three men there, who w^ere afraid to touch
the fire. He said to his host, "I too am a medicineman, but I don't
forbid my guests to touch the fire. Why do you?'' The other replied,
"I fear they would get hurt." Thereupon the visitor seized the fire-
sticks and pulled them about, saying, "I'll see what will happen; give
me your pipe and I'll smoke." The other shaman Ijegan to cough and
spat out worms rapidly increasing in number and moving towards his
rival. The latter stmck his sides with some mud, whereupon a little
bird came out and picked up the worms one after another. The host

1922.] Lome, Religion of the Crou\ 347

cried, "Don't let it eat up all my medicine; take yom- bird out and go
away." "I don't like 3'our medicine." At last the visitor covered his
head with his robe and put the bird back into his stomach. Then he said,
"Let us have some more fun, get out some more of your worms." The
defeated shaman said, "No, you are no good. Go away with your bird, I
don't want my medicine to be eaten up." One-horn added that the host,
before acknowledging his defeat, spat out a big toad, but his rival again
made the bird appear, which killed the toad and then reentered the
shaman's mouth.

This episode was also briefly described by Little-rump, who says it
took place when he was young. The owner of the lodge, according to
him, was named Cherry-necklace, ot the xuxkaraxtse clan; he had mar-
ried an Hidatsa woman and had Uved among her people. His neck was
tattooed all over. The other shaman was named Red-owl and belonged
to the usawatsid clan. Cherry-necklace would not permit anyone to
expectorate in his lodge because if they did they would feel a worm in
their neck. Once a man who had expectorated had a worm sucked out
of his neck. The other taboo established by Cherry-necklace was the
one described above. Red-owl's bird was a woodpecker. Both the wood-
pecker and the worms reentered their respective owners' bodies.

Sometimes a number of shamans would decide to have a contest and
assembled in a lodge where they ranged themselves on opposite sides,-
while young men came in to sing. Then, Strikes-three-men says, one
might begin the performance by taking a blue bead and rubbing it, thus
transforming it into a bluebird's egg. Another would rub some buffalo
chips and produce chokecherry pemmican. A third would twist his
blanket, thereby causing the man opposite him to drop in a faint; then
by untwisting the robe he would restore his opponent. These performers
were known as ak-bahimhire, which my first interpreter rendered, 'the
twisters,' but the more common meaning seems to be 'the transformers,'
'the jugglers.' The word without the prefix denoting the actor is applied
to a white man's circus performance. One shaman said to his adversary,
"I'll put a hncitse (flat rock used in pounding cherries) into your
stomach." His opponent arose screaming and his abdomen was seen to
protrude painfully. The other shaman smoked some medicine for in-
cense and made the abdomen shrink to its normal dimensions. One
. shaman said to his opponent, "Swallow this knife." When the man had
swallowed it, the shaman extracted it from his anus. Such shamans were
greatly feared by other people since they could cripple their enemies
through their power, 'seizing their victims' arms' {nndutud, see above).

348 Anthropological Papas American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XXV,

At such contests there are sometimes two or thi-ee, very rarely as many
as four, shamans on each side. Sometimes a shaman is powerful enough
to withstand his opponent's attack.

Tlu-ee-wolves recounted a shamanistic contest attended by hmi in
which four men took part. One side would say, "Try to prevent us
from doing sometliing to you." They sent a burr against one of their
opponents, and he fainted. The singers continued singing, and the suc-
cessful shamans asked for tobacco and smoked. The man who had cast
the burr jumped over the 'dead' man and with his hand extracted the
burr from Ms body; other shamans use suction. An otterskin was tied
to a peg in front of a performer, who twisted it, thereby choking his
opponent and making him fall down. The first shaman leapt over him
and after smoking restored hun to consciousness. ' 'Now we'll go against
one of your men, try to help him." They sent a red-stone pipe-stopper
(?) against him. Some men cannot be choked this way. The injured
man's comrades fanned him with a blanket or jumped about. Another
shaman rolled up wolf hair into a ball and sent it into his adversary.
One man jumped into the fire, stamped on it, then climbed a tipi pole
and on getting down challenged them, saying "Now shoot at me."
His opponents tried every device, but he always caught their medicine
and flung it back at them. These performances take place in the evening.
Only those who have dreamt of this particular power are active partici-
pants. They are usually, but not always, old men. Once a young man
dreamt of a bird fl3dng round in one direction and killing people thereby,
while when it flew the opposite way thej^ all revived.

Little-rump mentioned tricks performed on two distinct occasions.
Once several old Indians had assembled in a lodge and divided into sides,
each striving to outdo the other. My informant saw one man put a leaf
into the palm of his hand, deposit some ashes on it, blow and rub; then
he showed a shell. Another time Little-rump and his comrade were
with some Indians, and there was mutual twitting about each party's
having no medicine. The others challenged Little-rump and his com-
panion to do something. His friend took a bunch of buffalo hair and
some dirt, began to rub them under his blanket, and threw the product
in front of the challengers, and it was a mole. Then he took buffalo
hair, ashes, and dirt, rubbed them between his palms, and in a little while
the onlookers saw that he had something big in his hand. When he
threw it down, it was a live rat.

Arm-round-the-neck witnessed a combat between two shamans,
one seated on each side of the lodge, where a big fire had been kindled.

1922.] Lowie, Religion of the Croiv. 349

Both had painted themselves and used all their medicine. One of them
said he was going to bhnd his opponent. He was naked. While singing
his song, he jmiiped into the fire and got out again. "We chd not know
what he did, but the other man became bhnd. The blinded one whistled,
sang his song and did what he could but failed to regain his sight."
Then the shaman who had blinded him made him see again. The second
man in turn said he was going to try his medicine on the first and would
make him die. His medicine was a ghost; his body was painted white
and he had black paint round his eyes. He sang his song, went outside,
ran up the cover of the tipi and down again. His opponent went back-
wards and lay down stiff. When the man who had killed him saw that
he could not rise, he did not touch him, but made the motion of taking
something from his victim. He had a burr in his hand. The dead man
then got up. These medicinemen were named He-seeks (batsire) and
Enters-a-red-feather (ba+6c-birere). He-seeks jmnped into the fire
without getting hurt and Arm-round-the-neck thinks he had the stronger
medicine. One of the two shamans went up the inside of the lodge,
taking hold of the poles, went out of the smoke hole, and came down
again by the smoke hole; he made a noise like an owl.^

The foregoing was the only real hakiimhirio witnessed by Arm-round-
the-neck. He was present on another occasion when four shamans tried
to do something of the same sort, but without success. One of them
claimed having crow medicine and said he could take out people's eyes;
another tried to do something to my informant, but failed.

Another informant furnished the following account : —

It was getting dark when I heard a herald cry, "All who can make medicine shall
come together! Paint yourselves according to your visions and come to where I
am!" They were going to test one another's powers. They said, "We will test one
another and see who will leave." Those men who had visions of ground-squirrels and
ghosts always painted white. The door was opened and we all watched them. One
fellow who was painted white jumped into the middle of the lodge. "I'll kill one of
you," he said, and called one of the others, who immediately took his pipe to defend
himself. They danced. The ghost-visionary took a rope, while the other held his
pipe vertically, touching his neck. The performer tied a knot in his rope and his
opponent began to choke. Another man jumped into the middle and asked the per-
former to try his power on him. He protected himself by crossing and convulsively
twitching his arms, and the rope did not affect him at all.

All the medicinemen were singing separately. One shaman .said, "You are all
medicinemen ; I'll knock you all down by my power. " He hopped round with peculiar
movements of his left hand and all fell over towards the right side. Then he made

'This is doubtless the one with the ghost-medicine. See p. 381 .

350 Anthropological Papers American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XXV,

movements with his right hand, and they all fell over to the other side. Another man
took some bark, stuck it into the fire and blew smoke on his hands, making the sound
of a ground-squirrel. When he was ready, he said, "Look what I have done." He had
made a big plug of trade tobacco and gave it to them to smoke. Another shaman took
ashes, burned incense, and blew on the ashes, transforming them into beads. Still
another medicineman got up and said, "I'll make a handkerchief." He rolled a piece
of mud into a ball, while a drum was being beaten, rolled the ball, and stuck it into the
fire. When he opened his hands, a handkerchief was seen in them. He re-trans-
formed it into mud, and threw it away. I saw this myself.

At this point all the horses ran off and all the onlookers, including myself, ran
after them. After this^ one shaman took a stone maul, lifted it and swallowed it. His
stomach was inflated. He moved off and the stone dropped to the ground. Another
man stuck the limb of a chokecherry into the ground. This was in the winter time.
He sang, scratched the ground, and pulled out Indian turnips, which he gave to the
people to eat. He told them to sing again, took the chokecherry limb, shook it over
his head and looked at it three times. Nothing happened; but the fourth time he
looked and though it was in the dead of winter there were ripe berries on it, which all
of them ate. The same thing was done with june-berries. This magic power is
derived from animals appearing in visions.

Gray-bull described the following occurrences: —

We were camping on the Plum River. I heard a crier in camp calling some men
into his tipi so they might fix themselves up. I asked my mother what was the matter
and she told me it was a bdhumbtrio I heard drums beating. I went to the big tipi,
stood at the door, and looked in. The one closest to the door had all his body daubed
with white clay. He sang for a while, then jumped into the fire. The singers were in
the rear of the tent, singing special songs for the occasion. When the shaman got out
of the fire, he said, "Make tobacco for me." Then someone on the inside said, "Give
it here." He held his hand over the fire for a while, stretched out his arms, and when
he brought it back he had some tobacco and kinnikinnick in his hand. He acted as if
he were going to take something, then gave tobacco to those seated by him, who filled
their pipes, whereupon both they and he himself smoked. The shamans were ranged
on two sides, each group betting against the other. After the tobacco had been con-
sumed, one shaman told his opponents he would knock them all over on one side with
his hand. They began to sing and make medicines, telling him he could not do it and
betting against him. He began to dance by the door and the fire, clad only in his
breechclout and with his body painted white. He motioned with one arm as if to
push them to one side, and all of them fell toward one side. The spectators cheered
the shaman. After he had done this, he sat down. A man got up from the other side;
his body was red. He ran round the fire four times, then hooted like an owl, jumped
up, and disappeared. We did not know how he went up but heard him hooting owl-
fashion from the top of the lodge. He was going to bring either a fish or a frog, but
at this point all the horses in camp ran away and all the people went after them, so the
performance broke up. Somehow the shaman also returned and looked for the horses.
Those who performed these tricks usually had a crow, rat, or ghost for their medicine.

Gray-bull knew of no shaman of this type who gave away his
medicine.

'It is not clear whether the narrator means that what follows happened on another occasion or that
it merely happened after his departure and is told on the basis of hearsay.

1922.] Lowie, Religion of (he Croic. 351

Legerdemain.

Sleight-of-hand performances of this type were bj' no means con-
fined to the time of formal contests between medicinemen. One of the
most famous of shamans was Plenty-fingers, who is said to have been
contemporary with Medicine-crow's father; One-star's wife is one of his
granddaughters. He derived his power from a bear; at one time he was
very poor, but when a bear was killed in camp he had his back punctured
and dragged the skin about camp. He named all his seven children after
the bear, — Bear-stays-in-the-wood {naxyitsk-war'tre-na'kud) ) Bear-
holds-up-his-arms (naxpitse-iccire-wisdc); Bear-small- waist (naxpitsk-
tsikipic); Bears-seek-food {naxpitsk-maruc tslru); Bear-seeks-cherries
{naxpitse-ivntsuts-lric); Bear-ears {naxpitsk-a'pdc); ^Tiere-bear-stays-it-
is-good {naxpitse-anna'ko =itsic) .

One winter one of these children wanted some berries. Plenty-
fingers told them to get him the lijnb of a cherry tree. When they had
brought it, he stuck it into the ground in front of himseK, covered him-
self up and made medicine. When he had removed the blanket, the tree
was full of cherries, which the children ate. One of the boys wanted
plums and in similar fashion he produced plmns. Some of the girls would
long for wild turnips in the winter time. He would dig in the ground with
his fingers, take some out, and give them to his children. He could also
produce sarvis-berries and other berries in the mnter. When people had
no meat, they would go to Plentj'-fingers and ask him for some. He
would order them to get the bark of a tree, cover himself and the bark
with a blanket, and when he was done the bark had turned into dry meat,
which was given to everyone to satisfy their hunger. He could similarly
transform driftwood into animal intestines.

Plentj'-fingers was also able to treat illness. Once a man was on the
point of death, being just able to breathe. They said, "Call Plenty-
fingers." When he came, he bade the other people go outside. Then he
was heard singing a bear song. He sucked something out of the patient's
skull and something out of his neck and chest. Wliile before the man had
merely been able to breathe, he now began to talk and look about and
was well. Then Plenty-fingers stuck one finger into the ground,
sang a song and pulled out a wild turnip, which he gave the man to eat.
He told the people to bring him a plum branch, planted it in front of liim,
covered himself and the branch with a blanket, and began to growl Hke a
bear. When the blanket was removed, there were plmns on the limb,
and he fed them to the sick man. Similarly he produced cherries and
plums for him. He also stuck his fingers into the ground and pulled out
wild carrots (bik- dsa'te) for the people he doctored.

352 Anthropological Papers American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XXV,

Plenty-fingers foretold what was going to happen. He said, "There
is a place where j^ou are always going to run round in a circle." By this
he meant to prophesy that they were going to have fair-grounds. He
also predicted the kind of guns they were going to have, saying, "I have
a gun into which I always put six shells ; I have a gun that shoots far
away."

For a long time he was considered invulnerable. He felt safe and
accordingly acted as recklessly as a Crazy Dog. Once there was a big
fight on the Bighorn and one of the enemies had a gun and plenty of
arrows. The other Crow were afraid of him. Plenty-fingers asked
whether any of them had struck him*. When they answered negatively,
he went straight toward him and was shot above the abdomen, but
growled Hke a bear and rubbed leaves over his abdomen with his hand
and got well again. Then he captured the enemy's gun. Four times he
was badly wounded, but merely spat on his hands and cured himself
forthwith. Once the enemy were entrenched and Plenty-fingers walked
toward the trench clad in his bear blanket. They shot at him four times.
Each time he fell down, but when he got back there was no hole in his
blanket. Once, however, there were six Shoshoni in a trench and when
Plenty-fingers started against them they shot at him and he fell down.
People said, ''Though he falls, he gets up again." But he did not get
up; he had been shot square in the forehead. Little-rump was a big boy
when this took place.

To return to tricks of legerdemain. Little-rump tells of one occa-
sion when he saw Hunts-the-enemy give a performance at the request
of those present. Taking a buffalo chip, he flattened and rounded it
between his pahns, then rolled it. When it first left his hand it was a
round chip, but as it rolled farther it turned into a skunk. He took it
back under his blanket and threw out a buffalo chip. Another tale is
told of how a war party were without tobacco. One of the braves asked
his companions to whittle down a piece of bark to the size of tobacco,
then he put dirt on and began to rub it, blew on it, and when he showed it,
it was a piece of tobacco, which he smoked. Little-rump saw another
man put dirt and ashes into his pahii, rub them, and produce four beads.

A similar trick was witnessed by Gray^bull. He had a comrade
named Wants-to-Uve (im-hidc). One night they were out looking for
girls and wished to smoke, but had no tobacco. Wants-to-live told
Gray-bull to get bark from a tree. He brought it to him. He took the
bark in his hand and shook it in the air for a while, then handed it to
Gray-bull, telling him to take it. It was a piece of tobacco and my

1922.] Lowie, Religion of the Crow. 353

informant smoked it. Another time this same man took mud, rolled it
into four balls in his hands, glued them to his hand, and gave them to
Gray-bull. They were four beads such as Gray-bull wore in his necklace.

Another man is mentioned who had like powers ; his name was Old-
man-does-what-no-one-can-do (bart-wahirisa-isd'ke) . When his tobacco
was being consimied by himseK, he managed to maintain his supply,
but not if someone else smoked t.

One man had the Sun for his medicine. He had seen the Sun
painting himself red all over, then taking charcoal and marking a black
oval round his face, which he exhibited to the visionary. The man was
able thereafter to paint his face in the same way by putting charcoal
towards the sun and merely making the motion of painting an oval.
The people knew about this medicine. Its owner gave the painting
medicine to various men, all of whom proved successful, some even be-
coming chiefs.

Three-wolves narrated the following as an instance of shamanistic
power he had witnessed. One winter when the snow was very deep some
youths were pursuing buffalo afoot; four men went along. One man
with a six-shooter said, "I'll take you where there is something to eat."
He took them towards the mountains, where they saw buffalo crossing a
canyon far away. "If we go there, it will take us all night." Their
leader said, "We'll go to the brush and get a rabbit." He and Three-
wolves went there and found a herd of buffalo lying down not far away.
"I'll see whether I can kill one," said the shaman, taking off his robe.
He told Three-wolves to ascend a hillock. Then he approached the
buffalo, took something, and made a movement as if throwing some ob-
ject. Wlien the buffalo saw him, they rushed towards a hill, where one
of them fell down, so that the medicineman could easily dispatch him
with two shots. He butchered the buffalo and showed my informant a
Httle burr he had thrown into the buffalo's back where the sinews meet.
"That is what I crippled him with." He took back the burr, but Three-
wolves does not know what he did with it.

Invulnerability.
Relative invulnerability or marvelous powers of recuperation are
credited to a number of medicinemen. Thus, within Little-rump's
lifetime a man named Hole-in-his-ear was shot through the collarbone
with an arrow but recovered. In another battle he was shot in the back
with a gun but was restored to health. People began to think that he
could not be killed, but at last the Piegan while pursuing a party of

354 Anthropological Papers American Musenm of Natural History. [Vol. XXV,

Crow horse-raiders shot him in the head and killed him. Bull-snake is
mentioned as a mm bitten by a rattlesnake and apparently unable to
travel back to camp. His companion left him to notify his people, but
when they came to look for him he had started home by himself.^ Another
man was shot through the knee, but was well enough to walk within ten
days. He was shot in the back subsequently, but not killed. At last he
died from illness. After his death the Crow got to where his body was
and found that his bones were all covered with iron. His name was
Badger-arm. He was very strong. Once he killed a buffalo and some
people said he ought to have killed it in the shade so that they could
butcher in comfort; he seized it by the tail and dragged it into the shade.
Another Crow named Black-elk was shot and killed by the Dakota.
People saw him fall on the snow with blood issuing from his nose and
mouth. The other Crow went on and stopped at the mouth of the Reno.
During the night the Crow who had been killed caught up with them.
They asked where he came from and he told them. It was the same man.
Later he stole some Cheyenne horses and the Cheyenne killed him for
good.

Miraculous powers are attributed to a legendary shaman Big-iron.^
He is believed to have aged, died, and come back to Hfe three times
before living for the fourth and last time; thus his span of life covered
four generations. He was so powerful that he ventured to challenge
Thunder and succeeded in overcoming him and other supernatural
beings. What seems very remarkable is that according to both the tradi-
tion and an independent statement, he told the Crow to make offerings
and pray to him after he had died the fourth time and that he would then
grant their requests. He also prophesied as to the coming of the Whites
and his people's relations with them and what he foretold came true.

Charming Game.
Calling buffalo or deer constituted a particular form of shamanistic
activity based on specific visions. Thus, a brother of Bear-crane's,
while watering horses, caught sight of some buffalo hair and a slice of fat
some four inches long on a rosebush on the other side of the creek. He
brought the hair and the fat home with him, wrapped them up, and tied
them to the top of the backrest. When he slept that night, he dreamt of a
man singing and shaking a rattle and a great many buffalo came to the
singer. When the dreamer looked at the man, the latter said, "Make a

'See Lowie, this volume, 281.
^This volume, 288-298.

1922.] Lowie, Religion of the Crow. 355

rattle like this, putting a buffalo hoof on it, sing and shake the rattle,
and buffalo will come to you. The fat you picked up was myself; I am a
buffalo. Take a buffalo hide, paint it, take this rattle, wrap it up wdth
the hide, and hang it up." He went and carried out these directions.

At that time the Indians were starving for lack of game. The vision-
ar}^ went and cleaned his lodge. Beside his bed he placed dirt, in which he
marked the tracks of big buffalo and of calves. He greased his lips with
the fat, also took out the rattle, smudged it with incense of sweetgrass,
and began to bellow like a bull. The next time he put the rattle on the
same place and bellowed like a cow. The third time he imitated Httle
calves, and the fourth time old buffalo. Wlien the sun had gone down,
he gathered together all the men in his tent and asked, ''Where do you
want the buffalo? "On that big level place on the other side of the hill."
He sang the song he had dreamt, shook his rattle and rolled it in the mud
as though it were a buffalo wallowing.

He bade all the men go home and go to bed that night. "Tomorrow
niorning the buffalo will ])e here." The next morning he heard the bulls
bellowing on the other side of the hill. "Get up, the buffalo are here."
They got up, saddled horses, mounted, and went. The whole plain
was covered with buffalo and still more were coming. The}^ were tired
and could not run fast. The last time Bear-crane's brother worked his
medicine iwy informant was a little bo}'^ of about five.

Big-ox is also credited with having had the power of luring game.
Once the people could not find any game. Big-ox bade them get a buffalo
skull and put its nose toward the camp. In the night they began to sing.
In the morning the}' saw six head of buffalo and killed them. The fol-
lowing morning they again found several head. When they had had
enough, Big-ox bade them turn the sktiU round, then they did not see
any more buffalo. Another old man painted buffalo tracks around the
camp, smoked incense and sang, "I want to get buffalo in." He went out
and cried, "Young men, get up-hill; I think I have seen some buffalo."
Early in the morning some young fellow got up and saw some buffalo
going up-hill. He went home to tell the rest and the}^ killed some buffalo.
Every morning they i-epeated this until they had plenty of meat.

One-horn recollected several instances of buffalo-charming. Once
the Indians were hungry and could not find any buffalo. They called an
old man to charm the game. He told the heralds to bid a young man go
to a pond nearby and they would find some. A young man rose early,
went there, and discovered two big herds. He told the people, who went
out to kill the buffalo. At another time the Crow were camped at the

356 A7Uhropological Papers American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XXV,

Little Bighorn confluence. Buffalo were scared off and the people asked
Big-shoulder, one of One-horn's friends, whether he could get the game
nearer to them. He had a bonnet made of a buffalo head with the horns
and hung it high up on a pole. Then he told the people that the buffalo
were going to come close to the camp. They sent out a scout, but he
could not find any. They told Big-shoulder, who bade them try again;
if none were espied this time he would give up. Big-shoulder asked the
same scout to go out again to Porcupine Valley, about eight or nine miles
away. This time he saw buffalo, returned, and told the Indians, who
went out and got plenty of meat. Another time a man told the Indians
to look for buffalo near a high mountain. They sent out a scout, who
espied a dozen and reported. The Indians killed them. The shaman
told them that every day they would find a few head there, but they
failed to find any after the first time and lost faith in his powers. Then
he no longer made medicine. He had a coyote skin and an eagle wing
for medicines to lure the buffalo.

One- horn also recounted one instance of buffalo charming in con-
nection with a shamanistic conflict. Yellow-buffalo and Jackrabbit-
head had quarreled about women. Jackrabbit-head got up a war party.
Yellow-buffalo knew about it and made medicine so that Jackrabbit-
head should fail to see any game on the warpath and starve in conse-
quence. The party were out for two days, when a young man told Jack-
rabbit-head about Yellow-buffalo's attempt to starve them. Then the
leader knew that he should not accomplish anything on the warpath.
All were afoot. On the third day they still saw no game. The wind
blew so that the deer scented the hunters. For three days they had had
nothing to eat. Jackrabbit-head said to one man, "Get one nice un-
broken buffalo chip." He brought it. Yellow-buffalo's medicine was the
wind, while Jackrabbit-head' s was the Dipper. He said, "Yellow-buffalo
has been against me. I'll try to make it so we can get something to eat.
I have a good medicine; I think it is stronger than his, for it is the Seven
Stars." He smoothed the ground inside his tent and marked a buffalo
track on the smooth surface. He put the chip on the buffalo track and
took off a medicine-rock necklace he wore. This rock was covered with
buckskin and shaped like a person's face. He uncovered the rock and
rubbed some fat from a skin on its face ; he also rubbed it with yellow paint.
Someone filled a pipe and passed it round till it got to Jackrabbit-head,
who did not have it passed in front of him like the others, but over his
shoulder from the rear. This was a sign that he was going to stop the
famine. He put the rock on the chip; then, after smoking, he picked

1922.] Lowie, Religion of the Crou\ 357

up the rock and put it over his head where he was sleeping. He left the
chip where it was. They moved the next morning. Before sunrise
Jackrabbit-head sent men to Rosebud Creek to scout for buffalo. They
sighted from three to four hundred head there, and the party had buffalo
to eat all the way home. This showed that his medicine was better than
Yellow-buffalo ' s .

Some shamans called buffalo by dragging buffalo skins tied to their
backs and singing buffalo-bull songs on the way. Gray-bull's brother-
in-law was a buffalo-shaman; he had the wolf for his medicine.

Shamanistic practices were also combined with the two methods of
driving game over a cliff and into a pound. One informant says that
when he was a boy the Crow were roaming over the Basin. At the end of
a ridge there was a high rock pointing south and on both sides extended
rocks two to three hundred feet high to the distance of about two miles.
Before daybreak all the people went out. The shamans in charge sang
at night and selected a man for leadership in the morning. Starting
from the edge of the cliff and on each side men and \yomen were placed
with an intervening space of about fifty feet; farther back the distance
between adjoining sentinels was considerably greater. Others formed an
arc of a circle back of the buffalo herd, while at the edge of the rocks old
people and children were stationed. The buffalo were frightened down
the passageway formed by the two wings of Indians and driven down the
precipice so as to be killed. The old people sang praise songs in honor of
those working thus. The following day the same procedure was followed
in the same place with another herd, and on the next day it was done a
third time. Then the women tanned the hides. My informant knew of
another place where a buffalo drive had taken place, but he happened to
be on the warpath at the time, hence had only hearsay knowledge. This
time another shaman directed the proceedings. The rocks in this case
were only about eight feet high and the buffalo were not killed in jumping
down but impounded in a corral of about the same height, which was
filled with from fifty to sixty head. A space was left in the structure by
which a buffalo could be dragged out to be butchered. This method of
hunting was generally followed in the fall. It was in vogue long before the
Crow had iron arrow-heads.

Deer were also charmed either in connection with the surround, the
corral or cHff method; the procedure is known as u"x-dutu9 (deer-catch-
ing) . Bull-all-the-tiine recollected an occasion when Cloud lured the deer
without the use of a pound. He sang his song outside the camp, and the
people divided into two sides each having one man mounted on a fast

358 Anthropological Papers American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XXV,

horse. They went far out and formed a circle round the deer. Possibly
it is the same enterprise that is more circumstantially recounted by
Bear-crane as follows. When the people were camping on the Powder
River, Cloud told them they were going to catch deer. He sang for four
nights, and on the fourth he cried out that in the morning the Indians
were to get their horses ready in order to catch the deer. All men
mounted, led by two men on fast horses. One of these held a foxskin in
his hand, the other wing feathers. They saw some deer about as far
as from Crow Agency to Hardin. All the men were painted as though on
a war party. One man led two fast horses for the two leaders so that they
could mount them as soon as theirs were exhausted. Cloud stayed
behind and the other people with the children were behind him. They
had all their dogs with them, leading them lest they should go ahead.
The people ranged themselves in a circle surrounding the deer and were
hallooing and singing. Cloud had a big pipe with a fox hide tied to it and
moved it toward the deer, which kept circUng around. When all got
close to the deer, they turned their dogs loose. Thus they caught the
deer. They got so close to them that the deer could jump over their heads
and run away if not caught, but most of them were caught. The people
were so glad that they sang such songs about the deer as the following:
"A deer is coming running toward me; I am going to get a neck piece
and the hindquarters." Cloud always wore a white cloth round his
head and walked with a stoop at every step.

Another informant described the deer hunt as follows. A man while
fasting would see a vision of the deer hunt. In the spring , when the grass
was good, the young men and women were called with the cry: "It is
time to catch deer!" Then three kinds of men were sought, — those who
had medicine for speed, those having the fastest horses, and those who
had earned coups. All these men were assembled and divided into two
diverging semicircles, the women bringing up the rear. In this way they
would enclose a tract of several miles. Two men, one on each side, rode
the best- winded horses; they were carrjang arrows and were called arrow-
runners, (ak-aruute-wase) . The shaman sang four songs, wearing a buffalo
robe dressed with the hair. In each hand he held a pipe and he made
motions with his hands. "When I close the fourth song, you shall begin
to run." Then they all began to run, the leaders taking the lead on their
respective sides and meeting in front. The people all followed along
semicircles so as to surround the deer and closed the circle. In those days
there were very few guns; they shot the deer with arrows. It was con-
sidered unlucky to let any deer escape. The deer would circle round and

1922.] Lowie, Religion of the Crow. 359

round, finally gathering in a body when worn out and piHng on top of
one another Uke sheep. The young men gave their mistresses a gift of
venison. The last deer hunt of this kind took place the sprifig after
Gray-bull was born, which would make the date approximately 1848.
Another method was to have two hues of rock piles leading to a cutbank,
with people strung out in the intervening spaces, equipped with blankets
to wave at the deer, which were driven from the rear between the two
rows of sentries and ultimately down the bank.

As to the corral method, the following data were secured. One night
there was singing, conducted by the headman and his four assistants,
while the herald ordered everyone else to keep still except that at certain
points in the song all had to knock against their lodges and express a wish
to get a buck or a doe. The pound was on level ground; no posts were
set up and there were no mountains there. Two men riding the best
horses were chosen to lead the drive and they encircled the country from
opposite directions, enclosing a much larger territory than in the buffalo
chase. The people kept on closing in and the deer were kept running all
the time. Sometunes some wolves would be enclosed with the deer. The
last time this was done at the Yellowstone River. One man named
Rawhide was a Crazy Dog; he followed the deer round acting Uke a dog
and chasing them away till the people stopped him. Cloud, who is
credited with having conducted the ceremonial side of the surround, is
also described as superintending a corral drive. He selected two swift
men, each holding an arrow, and told them to run as fast as possible
and then cross each other's path. They scared the deer, which were
impounded by the people. In another account only one of the young
runners is represented as holding an arrow, while the other is made to
carry a feather.

The use of sacred rocks in charming game is described under
another heading (p. 389).

War Shamans.
With a people of so martial a cast of thought as the Crow many
shamans naturally had special medicines for war. Their services were
eagerly sought by men desirous of distinguishing themselves, who would
ask to be equipped for an expedition or to be adopted by the shamans,
thus gaining part ownership of their medicine, though at times the
shaman himseK took the initiative, offering to make the transfer. No-
horse gave the following generic statement on the subject: —

360 Anthropological Papers American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XXV,

If a man dreamt of a certain horse, he might say to another man,
"Take my medicine and get such and such a horse." The second man
would reply, "All right; if I bring the horse, you shall own it." Then
the shaman would continue, "You must know something about this
medicine, you may keep it." "If there is a day when I do not know
something about the medicine, will you help me out?" "Yes, I will help
you out, now you are my child." Possibly the warrior himself had a
di-eam and saw a place for his party to go to. Then he would go to his
adoptive father, saying, "You offered to help me; open the medicine bag
and fix it as it ought to be." He did so and incensed it appropriately.
"I will start out, and if I get the horses I have in mind I'll give you some."
If he had good luck, he would sleep about the outskirts of the camp on his
return and look for the shaman's lodge at night. He would say to him,
"I have brought a herd of horses, and yours is such-and-such a horse."
Then before dawn the old man would sing his song of rejoicing. When
the people heard him, they knew that his son had achieved something
woi'th while. The next morning the son brought the horse to his adop-
tive father.

If the warrior failed in his enterprise, he had his men form a line
on a hill and sang scout songs (tsttpuxud). Then he reported to his
'father.' "Where I went there was nothing and I have come back. See
what you can do with me." "I'll send you myself now. Make a sweat-
lodge about four days hence, with a small one beside it. Call the older
men and we'll go into the sweatlodge with them." So all would go in and
sweat. Then the shaman would bid them go to a certain tipi, where they
feasted, then he spoke as follows: "My son went on the warpath and
came back without anything. My heart is heavy and I want to say some-
thing; I wish all of you to listen. He made this medicine, thinking it
was true, but it seems not. I want to put it aside and send him out with
another. Four days from now go again without hiding it. The moon is
bigger now; the first time you went the moon was just dying, that was
the mistake we made. When you set out, let the women ride behind you
and sing. Have everything ready. As soon as the women have dis-
mounted, go on for a short distance and sleep. I'll sleep with you there.
Have another stop about the same distance, and similarly with the third.
Have all your meat eaten up. On the fourth day hunt and kill game for
meat. Then my soul will return^ and you shall go right on." The medi-
cine might be a bird. "On the fourth night when you awake a bird

'It is the shaman's soul that is supposed to have accompanied the warrior.

1922.] Lome, Religion of the Crow. 361

will come flying toward you. If it looks backwards and seems restless,
turn back and run home. If it flies with ease, not shaking its wings,
sing songs of joy and proceed; in that case you may depend on success.
This bird coming will be myself. When you know that you are near the
enemy, see that your lodge is without a hole and put out the fire after
you have eaten. When singing, look round and you'll see sometliing.
You will find out whether any of your men is to be kiUed or whether you
are to have good luck. If the former is the case, come right back."
The warrior would obey these instructions, put out the fire, and sing.
He might see blankets and saddles scattered about with his men's
shirts and clothes. Then he would have the fire rekindled and say, ''Let
us saddle up and flee." In that case he would return. Some might say,
"The leader is timid" and would advance toward the enemy. Such
men always met with disaster and the tribe could not hold the captain
responsible for their death since they had disobeyed him.

If the brave saw a black or white or some other horse, he sang songs
of jo3^ As soon as his companions heard these, they cried, "Thanks!"
Each one would say, "I want one like this," 'T want one like that,"
"If I get a good gelding, I shall rejoice." A bird would appear from the
proper direction, possibly bearing in its beak a scalp or some hair string.
Then the captain said, "I was sent out for horses, but it seems they want
me to do some kilhng." His companions might say, "If I strike a coup,
I'll give you a horse" ; or, "If I get a gun, I'll give you a horse." Some
possibly protested. "We have come for horses, we have not come to kill."
In a war party there are generally a lieutenant (tptse-aivud, inside-the-
pipe), a scout, and a rear officer {hdkace, the last one), who is supposed to
be a long-distance runner and who pokes those in front in the back with
his gun lest they slacken their pace.' These officers discuss the plan of
action with the leader and if all three join against him he is helpless.
One of them might say, "When you set out, you spoke about horses, that
is why we came." Another would saj', "I came to get a horse that I
might display, now I want you to do as I wish." Then the leader would
yield : "All right, tomorrow before daylight you will be on top of a certain
hill, sight the hostile camp and come back immediately. When on top,
stay till after sunrise and watch for the smoke. Look over the ground
and see how we shall have to run in fleeing. Find out what place we shall

'This officer may depose any of the other scout.s for sleeping too long or on account of other delin-
quencies. He selects additional scouts. The leading scout carries a wolfskin, the lesser ones generally
do not, but may carry coyote skins. Sometimes the wolf hide is put on the scout's head when he is
spying from a cliff in order to prevent discovery. In cold weather the hide is used as a covering. Some
think to themselves, "If I happen to go astray, a wolf will help me out." The scout's hide is slimg over
his back so the head will pro.iect over his left shoulder.

362 Anthropological Papers American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XXV,

reach before it gets dark. If it is near by, tell us and we'll stay where we
are. Even if I have to move, we'll go slowly. If the camp is not very
far, send one of yom- men back." If the scout sees the camp and judges
it to be far off, he so reports. The leader decides to move and tells the
scout, "We shall move slowly up to such and such a place. If none of
your men reaches me by that time, we shall move fast." If a runner came
back from the scouts, giving the coyote howl, the leader's party would
sing and gather up chips into a pile. The scout who gives the signal
circled round and repeated this when close to the party. At last he came
directly up to the heap of chips. The leader had a pipe filled and gave it
to the scout to smoke. The scout reported: ''At a certain creek, as the
sun came up, I saw the enemy's camp; even those boys saw the smoke."
If he saw the camp at close range and distinguished horses and people
clearly, he sent men back to announce it to those in the rear. A single
howl indicated that the camp was seen at a great distance; two howls,
that it was close. When the messenger shook his gun, the people inter-
preted it also as meaning that the camp was close. The messenger,
whether afoot or mounted, ran over the buffalo chips, scattering them.
"Our leader has given orders for you to come to yonder point. The camp
is close, you had better hide in the coulee as much as possible. Throw all
your heavy stuff (blankets, etc.) away, look out for your guns, cinch
your saddles and have everything prepared." Then the main body
advanced toward the chief scout. "Where is the camp?" asked the
captain. The scout showed it to him and said, "Get out your medicines
and make incense. Get ready. Some of these men had better go back
to wait for the leader for four days on the way home. If I don't get there,
I shall have been chased another way. When at home, make a signal
fire at the outskirts; and if I am behind you I shall make a similar signal.
If you see my smoke, you'll know that I have had good luck and brought
horses. That is all I have to say to you." Some member of this expedi-
tion probably has a blackbird for his medicine. The captain asks for.
such a one, and whether he be a little boy or an older person he is put
in the lead. At night the party arrives at the enemy's camp and all seat
themselves at the outslcirts. The captain now appoints a leading and a
rear scout, and his heutenant likewise appoints two. They go to the
outside of the camp to find horses that are most easily taken. "Bring
them here directly. If all the horses are tied, we'll get in and try to cut
them. If any are grazing, they will capture them." Then the man get-
ting the kind of horse promised to the captain (either in his own or his
shaman's vision) gives it to the captain, who accepts it. After a while

1922.] Lowie, Religion of the Crow. 363

the captain says, "We have enough horses now, let us flee." They run
all night and the following day. Any horses that are exhausted are made
to drop behind. The party continue going for two days and two nights.
On the fourth day they halt to get to the body detached from the main
party, and each one of this smaller group gets a horse. They proceed till
they get to the Crow camp, where they halt. The leader goes to the
shaman and tells him, "My heart is good (I am glad), I have brought
many." Before sunrise all his companions come to camp, circle round,
and finally disperse. It does not matter how many horses are brought,
all are driven before the shaman's camp. "This is what I have brought;
I give them all to you." The shaman sings a song of rejoicing. "It is
well. You tired yourseK out getting them; take them and keep them
yourself or distribute them among your relatives. I am the one that
gives them to you. I rejoice. You know that I have now given you all
that medicine. Go and do about it as you choose." Thus the captain
gets to own the medicine and uses it as he pleases.

To the foregoing may be added a specific account by another in-
formant.

Sore-tail was famous for sending people out on the warpath. Once
a man named Hair set out on an expedition. He left his hoop medicine
on a sagebrush and told his followers to take it along. They put it
round a dog's neck and had him carry it. Hair said to them, "You have
spoiled my luck ; I was counting on victory ; I'll return tomorrow." Two
scouts came in and reported what they had seen. White-on-the-neck
said, "Those are liot elk but people." When it got dark they heard the
howUng of a wolf. White-on-the-neck said, "That is no Wolf, you had
better prepare for the enemy." They were going to send a boy for
water. He said, "I'll go myself." As he dipped up some water, he heard
a bush snapping. He bade the warriors hasten to their entrenchment.
The enemy charged and shot one Crow in the breast. The captain re-
minded them that they had put his medicine on a dog. Two men were
wounded, one of them took his brother on horseback and they fled riding
double. They got to the Crow camp and reported that the rest of the
party were surrounded in their corral. All the young men immediately
set out to reHeve them, but when they arrived the Dakota had made their
escape with some of the Crow horses. The comrades of the slain Crow
mourned pubHcly, They loaded several horses with presents; some
stopped at Sore-tail's lodge, some at the informant's father's, some at a
female warrior's, embracing them and crying. Sore-tail said, "Tomorrow

364 Anthropological Papers American Mnsenm of Naiural History. [Vol. XXV

make all the moccasins you intend to take along, the following day get
3^our horses, then report to me." He said three Dakota had already been
given to him in a dream. He bade all the people come out, including the
women, for a ceremony before the beginning of the expedition. A big
pile of buffalo chips was heaped up. Sore-tail told people to watch him
at noon, to go i-ound the camp singing, and report to him, then they would
proceed towards the pile of chips. As soon as Sore-tail was read}', he took
the three captains and made them sit down in front of him. He sang a
song, pointing at the sun, then at the informant's father, and the latter
was (iecorated with yellow i)aint there. Similarh- he ]iut red paint on
him. 'Til paint him with two colors, the rest of you with only one."
He put hhw paint on the second captain. The fourth time he sang,
pointing at tiie sun and the female warrior, who was painted black. The
three captains cried, "Thanks!" Sore-tail, wearing a buffalo robe with a
whole eagle on it, sat down on the pile of chips. "Watch me closel}',"
he said; "I shall sing four songs, then I shall rise from this pile. Watch
me when I rise." They all watched him. He rose and turned into an
eagle holding the scalp of an enemy in each claw. 'Tn seven days j'ou
shall be back here. The first one you kill will lack one hand. As soon
as you kill an enemy put a new moon on your back." They sighted the
enemy on the Powder River on the fifth day; there were seventy in the
hostile party, so the Crow confined their attention to the three Dakota
scouts. The.v killed two of them; the third one evaded them for a long
time, but was finally also killed. It was found that his right hand lacked
a thumb, hence the Crow called the year "When the thumbless man was
killed."' On the sixth day Soie-tail told the Crow in camp to prepare
black paint. On the seventh day Sore-tail met the war party, took one
of the captured scalps, and went through camp exhibiting it. There was
great rejoicing in the camp and Sore-tail was acclaimed for sending out
the expedition.

Sore-tail on another occasion sent out the informant's father, bid-
ding him bring two Dakota scalps. This, too, turned out true. Another
time Sore-tail sent out the same person telling him to be gone for thirteen
days and bring a scalp; still another time he bade him get three enemies,
and he did so. Sore-tail kept a pet eagle, which would fly outdoors for a
while and then return. Sometimes the eagle would whistle, then the
owner looked up and saw plenty of ])irds, whereupon he warned the Crow
to tie up their horses near camp since the enemy was near. All the Crow
helped feed the eagle.

•I.owie, this series, vol. 9, 242.

1922.] Lotvie, Religion of the Crow. 365

Red-l)ear had a gun for his medicine. Once the Dakota were very
near and about to charge the Crow. Bed-bear told the people to bring
their guns to him. He burned sweetgrass for incense and pointed his
gun towards it, asking it to break the enemies' backs, arms, and thighs.
Then he pointed the butt toward the incense and asked it to break the
enemies' heads. He told his followers to repeat his word. Then they all
imitated his motions and words, each with his own gun. They had their
gun drill. They cleaned their guns and pointed them at the Dakota.
While they were going through their rhythmic movements. Red-bear
sang. He ordered them not to bring arrows into his presence and told
them he was about to attack seventeen lodges. One-eye came at the end
of the procession with a bow and arrow, saying, "These are sharp enough,
I can smoke them with incense." He did so, pointing his arrow instead
of a gun at the enemy. The medicineman saw him but said nothing,
thinking he had given ample warning. They made a dash against the
Dakota and no one was hurt except the offender's brother, who was shot
in the kneecap. When enemies approached, he would shoot off a loaded
gun once, but thereaftei- he would shoot it without powder, by mere
magic.

Some other shamans were renowncnl for their powers of prophecy and
divination. Thus, there was an old man who knew when the enemy were
approaching; he could tell in how many days and at what time they were
going to come and told the Crow when to watch for them and kill them.
Sometimes he prophesied that it would rain or snow on the following day.
He did not dream of these things; something told him. The Sun was
thought to be his medicine. He asked Indians to call him "He-sees-all-
over-the-earth." His medicine consisted of a hoop to which a star was
tied; the hoop was wrapped with otterskin. Another man, who was
favored by the Dipper, acted in somewhat similar fashion. He would
dispatch war parties, telling them precisely where to go and what to get.
Though he stayed home, he knew exactly in how many days the warriors
would return and what they had acc^omplished.

Sweet-marrow (dup-tsik' uac) had the special ability of locating the
enemy's camp. Once he went on the warpath with some others near the
mountains. At the canyon of the Tongue River one of them said to him,
"Make medicine tonight." He bade them make a shelter without any
holes in it. They did so. He sang a medicine song. It was dark inside
at night. He took his pipe and looked through it. He saw the hostile
camp near Cold Spring. Then he sang .songs of rejoicing, and his com-
panions said, "Thanks, Sweet-marrow; when we get to the enemy.

366 Anthropological Papers American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XXV,

we'll cut a mule and a horse." They stole a horse and returned. The
rest of the Crow people were at the Agency. On the return of the party,
Sweet-marrow acquired a great reputation. A few days later he went
out again. After a while he had a dream and returned to camp while the
others in the party went on. Young-coyote, the captain, was asked to
make medicine one night. Then he did so and saw the camp, whereupon
he sang songs of joy. The others also rejoiced. The enemy was at the
site of Buffalo, Wyoming. In the evening they had a sham battle, then
they moved camp toward an old fort. Young-coyote's party watched
them from a high hill. Before setting out that night they made medicine.
Young-coyote told the young man to go to the camp and see about the
horses. They did so, but the enemy must have had dreams, for they had
rounded up their horses and put them into a corral. Young-coyote
sneaked into it nevertheless and captured a mule and a horse. He got
out and traveled some distance, then stole two more. Grandmother's-
knif e said that Sweet-marrow was the onl}^ man who could find a camp by
looking through a pipestem. He used an ordinary pipestem on the war-
path, though he also had a special one. He would hold his medicine over
incense at night, clean his pipestem and look through it. He always saw
the camp in the proper place. He got his powers from his father, who
got them from Thunder.

A curious method of divination is attributed to Bear-tooth. At
one time the Crow were all camped on the Missouri. The Piegan and
Assiniboin were in the Musselshell Valley and the Crow found out that
the enemy was coming toward them. Bear-tooth told the people to bring
a rifle; he would shoot it off without its being loaded. If it went off, it
would be a sign that the Crow were to be victorious. He asked all the
people to come and look at him. "You don't believe me, but I want all of
you to see me and each bring me a little sagebrush." He called the crier
to herald the performance. "If the gun goes off, we'll start against the
enemy tomorrow." The Indians got out. Bear-tooth said, "Leave
room for me where I can dress up in my war clothes. Some of the wise
men may examine my gun to see whether there is any cartridge in it."
He was wearing fur moccasins, canvas leggings smoked brown, and a
similarly smoked canvas shirt. His face was painted black up to the
forehead and he also blackened his chin. Around the head he wore the
mane of a buffalo. He carried his gun on his arm and went to the wise
men, who were smoldng sweetgrass, pointed the gun at the fire, then
turned the butt toward it. He got into the center of the crowd, pulled
the trigger, showed that there were no cartridges there and bade the

1922.] Lowie, Religion of the Crow. 367

crier keep still. When ready he said, "Before I shoot I shall sing a song.
If it does not go off the first time, don't worry. But if it does not go off
the second time we shall be badly defeated. If I succeed, we shall beat
the enemy." All were quiet and watched him. He stepped back to the
sweetgrass fire, cocked his gun and sang the first song, slowly dancing
towards and away from the fire. He pointed his gun at the air, but it
did not go off. The people all thought they were having bad luck. He
said he would try again. He sang a second song and repeated the same
procedure, as before, four times. He bent his head over, patted his right
ear and took something out of his left ear, putting it into the gun. Then
he sang towards the fire, approached it, and shot off his gun, which went
off as though loaded with a cartridge. Then he spoke thus : ''At the first
trial my gun did not go off, so they may kill four or five of us, but we shall
get the best of them since it went off the second time." Early the next
morning the Crow got ready, peeped at the enemy from over a hill, and
charged them at sunrise. They took many old women, adults and
children for captives. The following day they placed these in a row and
counted them : there were about three or four hundred. Later the Piegan
returned and recaptured some of their people. The captive girls grew
up and married Crow, hence there were a good many haK-Piegan among
the Crow.

On another occasion there were about two hundred Crow on the
warpath. They were tired out. There were about six or seven shamans
in the party, including Spotted-horse, Gros- Ventre, Curses-the-whole-
camp, Bear-tooth, Smooth-rump, and Crazy-bear. They were pursuing
the Shoshoni, who had previously killed many of the Crow. After three
or four days' journey they got to one of the Shoshoni party's recent
campsites; they found fresh meat there and traces of seventeen lodges
that had recently been pitched there. Traihng the enemy they got to a
valley and riding at night came to camp a httle above the Shoshoni.
They were ready to fight but decided to wait until early next morning.
Before sunrise they approached, put on their war dress and prepared for
the battle. Then the leader asked Spotted-horse to use all his medicine
against the enemy. They surrounded the Shoshoni camp, then Spotted-
horse bade the warriors find a spring. They looked for one till they found
one. Spotted-horse came up, dressed in his war regaha, and painted his
face and body yellow all over. All his hair was tied in the back with black
flannel. Then he pointed his finger at the Sun and drew an imaginary
fine round his face with it. "If I look into the spring and see a picture of
the Sun there, it will be well and I shall know what is to happen, whether

368 Anthropological Papers American Museum of N'atural History. [Vol. XXV,

we shall conquer or be beaten. Otherwise I shall give up." He sang and
saw nothing there. The second time he scooped up a handful of water
and saw the Sun in it. First he sang a war-dance song, then two medicine
songs, then looked into the spring, then went back to where his clothes
were, sat down and told a follower to untie his hair. Next he asked for a
pipe to smoke and asked several men to smoke with him. Then he told
them what was going to happen. All kept silent to listen to him. "Our
enemies are among us. We shall capture and kill many. None of us are
going to be killed, but two will be wounded and one horse will be killed.
We'll defeat our enemies and reach home without trouble. Don't be
afraid. We are going to beat them, and while two of you will be wounded
they will not die therefrom. Only one horse is to be killed. I have seen
an enemy, one girl with an arrow in her shoulder, she will be a captive of
ours. We are ready now and shall charge the enemy."

When the.y got near the Shoshoni, Red-bear stopped them to speak
to the shaman and said, "The}- have medicinemen in the enemy's camp
too, but ours are more powerful.' ' Thin-bull wanted to work some of his
own medicine and sat down before the warriors. He was carrying his
medicine round his waist and opened it. He had a spear with a l^uffalo
tail at the end of it; which he laid beside him. He called his l^rother
Crooked-feet, who sat down beside him. Thin-bull dug a pit before his
brother and filled it with red paint. Then he took a string of deer hoofs
and rolled them about in the pit, whereupon he painted his brother's
face and head, stuck a crow feather into the back of his head, placed the
string of deer hoofs round his neck, sang a song and snorted like a
buffalo. Thin-bull told him not to be afraid of any enemy in the battle.

The Crow had two men climb trees and look for the camp, which was
about a quarter of a mile away. Then they all charged the eneniA'. The
women had their children in the brush. The Crow killed and captured
many Shoshoni. One Crow had a black horse killed under him, but
escaped unhurt. Spotted-horse's prophecy was fulfilled. One Crow was
wounded in the knee, another in the forehead, but neither was killed.
They returned home without loss of a single man.

Wraps-up-his-tail.
Under the heading of shamanism maj' properly be considered the
career of Wraps-up-liis-tail (tsls-tsipariac) , who is sometimes referred
to by white writers as 'the Prophet.' He is connected with the one
Crow uprising against the Government (1890), just before the Ghost
dance began to spread among the Plains tribes. Owing to Wraps-up-his-

1922.] Lowie, Religion of the Crow. 369

tail's failure, some informants were inclined to regard him as a pretender,
but the general consensus of opinion is to the effect that he really pos-
sessed medicine powers.

The essential points in his story seem to be these : He chafed under
Governmental domination and on the basis of a vision believed that he
possessed supernatural powers. His instrument was to be a sword he
had somehow secured, by waving which he beheved he could compass the
destruction of any force of soldiers sent against him. He is said to have
given a demonstration of its use by cutting down some trees. The follow-
ing is Gray-bull's statement : —

I think he wa.s medicine. He went on a war party and brought back horses.
Early in the morning he went round camp, passed through the Agency and shot at the
Agent's house. Rations were being distributed then and thereafter the Indians
moved. Wraps-up-his-tail was living on the Little Bighorn, near Wyola. The Agent
sent an (Indian) policeman to arrest him, but Wraps-up-his-tail would not come, and
told the pol'ceman to bid the Agent himself come for him.

Somewhat later the war party that had shot at the Agent's house were brought to
the Agency, then Wraps-up-his-tail went along. He said he wanted to die and the
Agent should hang him. The white soldiers were camped at the foot of the hills,
just below the Agency. The Agent sent for Wraps-up-his-tail and asked whether he
preferred being imprisoned or killed. He answered, "I want to be killed." The
soldiers were all lined up. The followers of Wraps-up-his-tail began to make medicine,
painted their bodies, faces and honses, and rode round camp. Wraps-up-his-tail sat
on a gray hor.se. He painted black stripes on his horse's legs; he was wearing a red
shirt and leggings, with fringes at the sleeves, leggings, and at the bottom of the shirt.
His foretop was very short. He used red paint and white clay on his face, decorating
it with a lightning line, and tied a whistle to his head. After painting up he went
round camp, carrying a sword. There were no clouds at the time but raindrops were
falling. The Agent sent for Wraps-up-his-tail and had him brought to the office.
He offered to make him chief and give him cattle and other property, but Wraps-up-
his-tail refused, saying he wi-shed to die. There was no fighting that day.

Spotted-rabbit arrived and asked Wraps-up-his-tail whether he might fight with
him. He said, "Yes." Wraps-up-his-tail made a shirt for Spotted-rabbit and the
following day he painted up and acted as before. The soldiers were also lined up
again. Spotted-rabbit was carrying both a pistol and a .sword, Wraps-up-hi.s-tail
only a sword. When the soldiers had formed their line, Wraps-up-his-tail approached
them and said that if they did not kill him by the time he reached the end of the line
he would kill them. The soldiers were waiting for him. The Crow Indians tried to
dissuade him; Crazy-head and Deaf-bull were the only chiefs siding with him, the rest
of the Crow merely looked on. Spotted-rabbit and Wraps-up-his-tail were like the
Sun that day. They ran in front of the line and the soldiers began to shoot at them.
They could not hit him. When he got to the end of the line, they shot him in the
arm. Then he and Spotted-rabbit went to the river. The soldiers sounded the bugle
and went in pursuit, but could not hit them. About ten Indians fought the soldiers
then, killing one of them. The .soldiers surrounded Knows-his-coups and from time to
time' he shot at them. They shot Two-whistles through the arm and killed an old

370 Anthropological Papers American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XXV,

woman. Wraps-up-his-tail got to the spot where the old woman had been killed and
laying down his sword asked the Crow to kill him; but they refused. After a while
Fire-bear (Crow policeman) came up and asked where Wraps-up-his-tail wanted to
be shot. He said he wanted to be shot in the forehead. So Fire-bear shot and killed
him. Crazy-bear and some others were seized and imprisoned. There were only about
ten Crow who took part in the fight; the old men all advised against it, saying there
was no reason for fighting. Had all the Crow participated, they would have killed all
the soldiers. I have never heard why Wraps-up-his-tail wanted to fight.

I have heard that Wraps-up-his-tail had cut down pine trees with his sword. An
Indian said that he similarly tried to cut down the soldiers and that a noise was
heard overhead when he made the motion. Had he made it a little lower down, he
would have cut the soldiers down.

Wraps-up-his-tail received his name from his guardian, who had dreamt of a dog
calling another by that appellation.

Another informant presented the occurrence as follows: —

There was a complete circle of enemies round the Crow. Wraps-up-his-tail of the
Kicked-in-theii -bellies clan, went out with a pipe,^ brought back a great many horses,
and paraded through camp. He went through the Agency, where they were issuing
beef. He shot at the Agent's house, telling him he was not afraid of him. The Agent,
whose name was Armstrong, sent the (Indian) police after Wraps-up-his-tail, but he
refused to go with them. The police were afraid and would not touch him. He
said to them, "You are poor ones; I may kill all of you." He put on red leggings with
long fringes and wore a red fringed shirt. He put a whistle crosswise at the back of his
queue, together with a flying-squirrel (?) . His hair was done up in a short pompadour
and decorated with white paint. He painted his face yeUow and put a white oval
round it. He painted his horse's face with charcoal; from the shoulderblade and hip
joints to the hoofs he painted him black. His only weapon was a sword.

The whole Crow tribe was camped at the Agency. The Agent wanted Wraps-up-
his-tail killed and sent for the soldiers. Wraps-up-his-tail burned incense and placed
his sword over it. He said, "When all the soldiers are lined up, I shall wave my sword
and they will all die." The Agent came with all the soldiers and said, "Since you are
chief of all the Crow, make known your request and we'll agree to it." The Indian
policeman asked Wraps-up-his-tail to make a request on behalf of the Crow, but he
refused. He said, "You are Crow Indians, I don't call myself a chief. You have
treated your own people as prisoners. I want to die, that is why I shot at the Agent's
house." To the whites he said, "I want to destroy you all." They were camped by
the fair-grounds. The soldiers were ready to fight. The young Crow all supported
Wraps-up-his-tail, who said he would point his sword in the four cardinal directions
and kill the whites. He and his followers mounted horses. The Indian police took
their kin to the Agency, where they would be safe. The soldiers practised shooting at
effigies. We got tired. We heard they were trying to shoot Wraps-up-his-tail 's
eflfigy.

In the morning a herald told all the Crow to mount thejr horses and get ready.
"They have your power, Wraps-up-his-tail." "No, I don't like you any more, I
want to die." There were about ten young men with him. Then others got tired of
it and left him. The soldiers extended from the hill back of the school to the Agency;

'The captain's emblem of oflBce.

1922.] Lowie, Religion of the Crow. 371

they were all armed. Wraps-up-his-tail rode a few feet in front of their line. They all
shot at him. We were standing farther back looking on and thought he would fall
but he was never touched. Spotted-rabbit was accompanying him. Wraps-up-his-
tail waved his sword and all the soldiers seemed' to fall, but straightened up again.
One soldier said they heard something whizzing by when the sword was moved past
them. When the horses got to the end of the line, all the soldiers formed a ring round
him and shot at him. One man tried to stop him, but he hit him across the head with
a sabre, knocking him down. Then ten Crow Indians went right among the soldiers.
At last Wraps-up-his-tail fled across the river and the soldiers gave up trying to kiQ
him. He talked across the stream, bidding them come and kill him, since they had
shot him in the arm. He advanced towards the soldiers and threw down his sword,
but they did not go toward him. The police ordered the Crow to go to the Agency.
Wraps-up-his-tail said to Spotted-rabbit, "Go alone and hide, I want to die." He
crossed the stream below the slaughter-house. On the other side Knows-his-coups
was lying in a little hole, popping up and down; the soldiers shot at him, then gave up
the pursuit.

Wraps-up-his-tail had surrendered to the soldiers, who would not seize him. The
Indian police arrived. He sat down, pointing at his breast. Then he said, "Point
at my forehead." Then Fire-bear shot and killed him. The soldiers killed an old
woman hiding in the woods. They shot Two-whistles in the arm, breaking his bones,
and after having the arm amputated they sent him home. Three-fore tops was also
in the fray. All the Crow hated Fire-bear. Wraps-up-his-taU's brother tried to
catch him alone and kill him, but never succeeded. Crazy-head and Deaf-bull, both
Kicked-in-their-bellies chiefs, were blamed for the uprising by the Government and
imprisoned in the East.

Before this time Wraps-up-his-tail had never been recognized as a medicineman.
After his burial it was reported that there was a red flame above his grave. The Crow
still consider him medicine because the soldiers' volley did not kill him; also because
on his return from the war party he moved his sword before some pine trees and made
them fall down.

Still another informant said that Wraps-up-his-tail had gone to the
mountains three times in quest of a vision, staying from two to four days.
Gros- Ventre says he has seen him paint his face by pointing his finger
at the sun, and though he used no paint he would produce a red stripe.
There was usually a storm when he went through camp. It was said
that he chose the wrong season for fighting, hence his failure. He was
powerless in the winter time, but would have succeeded in the summer.

One-blue-bead also said that in his opinion the outcome was Wraps-
up-his-tail's own fault. His vision was to come true in the spring when it
thundered, but he waited until the fall. Half of his vision was true
{tsUsa k'ot'uk'). In part he was fooled. "He claimed that he could not
be shot, that part was false. Our hearts tell us that part of what he said
was true. He had a sword, went up to the mountains, made a motion of
cutting the pines, and the trees fell down. But with the soldiers it did
not work. Muskrat saw the trees fall."

372 Anthropological Papers American Museum of Natural History. [Vol .XXV,

Miscellaneous.

When Fire-weasel was a boy he accompanied the Crow to the
Hidatsa; there was a shaman in the party. An Hidatsa stole one of the
shaman's horses. The shaman made medicine, caUing for a good rain.
Then it rained every day and night. The Hidatsa gardens and their
earth-lodges were soaked, and the horses sank down in the mud. The
Hidatsa chiefs asked the thief to return the horse lest they be destroyed.
Accordingly, the horse was brought back at night and tied to the shaman's
tent, but the horse's mouth had been tied with corduroy and was badly
cut, so the owner was very angry. The chiefs made the thief give the
shaman another horse and some property, then the rain ceased. That
winter the Hidatsa were starving.

One informant told about a man named Hunts-the-spring, who gen-
erally traveled afoot and would sometimes walk up to the top of big tipi
poles, then down again. The same informant knew of a woman, said to
get out of her head (duciuk), who could tell who it was whenever any-
one peeped in through a little hole. She was a good runner.

/

1

THE PRACTICE OF MEDICINE.

A person who administered roots and other medicines in our sense
of the term is known as ak' hdrid, a word extended to include white
physicians. As a special class of practitioners the Crow segregate the
wound-doctors, akuwdcdiu. Those, on the other hand, who are shamans,
i.e., derive their powers, whether relating to medical treatment or not,
from a supernatural source, are in a literal sense 'medicine ( = holy)
men,' (batse maxpe) . But this classification cannot be rigidly maintained
in practice since many forms of treatment are traced to a vision, and the
method of heahng wounds is probably uniformly so derived.

Apart from special medical assistance there are of course certain
remedies which are extensively used. Of these the isk root,
which is dug up in the mountains, is used in a variety of ways, but
especially as a liniment. This is the same substance that serves so
largely as incense on ceremonial occasions. It may be applied with
various other ingredients; for example, a mixture of ise and buffalo
chips is rubbed over a swelUng. Once I observed Muskrat treating an
interpreter's Httle daughter for a swelling. Sitting at a distance I could
see her chew some root, very hkely ise, which she rubbed on the girl's
leg. This root is said to be eaten by bears; the stem of the plant closely
resembles that of a carrot. Among other things, ise is also boiled with
tallow for a cough medicine. In Pryor I bought some 'sweet-sticks'
from Sharp-horn's wife; they are chewed, soaked in water, and drunk
as a remedy for diarrhoea. Henry Russel, oddly enough, said this medicine
also contained a cathartic principle and was used accordingly. Else-
where I heard of a plant called dtsirUxe, which the Indians pull out in
order to chew the juice, which is good for the teeth and the health
generally. Certain river weeds are boiled into a tea {cucud) .

The sweatlodge was not used primarily for medicinal purposes and
even in recent times seems to have had rather a rituahstic function or to
have assumed the character of a sport. It is true that in a myth Old-
Man-Coyote cures his companion Cirape through a sweatlodge,^ but the
circumstances admit of a different interpretation. Cirape's sickness
resulted from his having been offered to the Sun; hence clanger is natur-
ally averted by substituting the sweatlodge as a Sun offering par ex-
cellence.

'Lowie, this volume, 20.

374 Anthropological Paj)ers American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XXV,

In cases of stomach trouble the Crow even today employ an imple-
ment called I'tsipdtsirud, stomach-kneader. It is a stick about 18 inches
long widening out at the bottom after the fashion of a darning-last.
The lower part is pushed against the stomach and upward. This device
is mythologically derived from the Dipper, who instructed a wbman in
its apphcation, telling her she should gain property thereby in the waj^ of
fees.^ However, its use nowadays is quite devoid of any rehgious im-
pHcations. I saw Gray-bull knead a young man's stomach; he explained
that the Crow were careful not to press hard on the navel.

Muskrat, as shown elsewhere (p. 340), derived some of her methods
of treatment from her own supernatural experiences, and Bull-all-the-
time made a corresponding claim (p. 328) . Since visions differ and are of
specific character, it follows that most practitioners are speciaHsts con-
versant only with the mode of treatment to be followed for particular
kinds of disease. Thus, a man bitten b}- a snake, but surviving the
effects, would regard the snake as his medicine and would treat people
who suffered from snake bites. Wounded men, on the other hand,
were treated by men having a buffalo vision. Again, Gray-bull's wife
was an obstetrician, having obtained instructions from a man who had
dreamt of a certain mode of treatment in confinement cases.

Crow theory of disease is not affected by the belief in sorcery to
nearly the same extent as that of many other primitive peoples. Of
course evil magic is practised (p. 345) but it does not pervade the entire
intellectual atmosphere. On the whole, far greater significance must be
attached to the taboo concept. Illness is often ascribed to the trans-
gression of a rule laid down in a vision or associated with some sacred
object. For example, a person may be forbidden to eat chokecherries or
a special part of the buffalo, and disobedience will lead to dire conse-
quences. Others are afraid to come into close contact with menstruating
women lest they bleed from the nose or contract a headache ; if such men
went into battle after contact with a woman in tliis condition, they would
probably be killed. Tangible pathogenic agents are also reckoned with.
Sometimes the soul of a deceased individual puts a tooth or lock of hair
belonging to the corpse into a person's body, producing insanity. Persons
afraid of corpses seen in battle are said to be liable to this affliction.
Gray-bull ascribes his temporary deafness at one time to a stone put into
his ear by the hand of a slain enemy (see below).

Hbid., 126, 128.

1922.] Lowie, Religion of the Crow. 375

Turning now to the medical treatment given, it is natural that
doctors contending with real or putative material agents of destruction
sought to extract them. Some blew upon the affected part, others used
suction. A favorite method was applying a pipestem and sucking out the
fatal substance; this, e.g., was done in extracting the hair or tooth of the
ghost causing madness.

Gray-bull called this procedure hakdrluk'. Once his son White-hip
was ill; he had eaten some food and something stuck in his throat, and
though he drank water he could not get rid of it. Bull-all-the-time was
summoned and ordered everyone out of the lodge except the patient and
Gray-bull, whom he asked to look at him. The doctor rubbed some sub-
stance on White-hip's breast, abdomen, and neck. He sang some songs,
sucked at the patient's throat with his mouth, making a popping sound,
and produced a morsel of meat which had lodged in White-hip's throat.
Bull-all-the-time himself referred to this episode, as well as to several
other cures he had effected. Thus, he once extracted a black beetle
from Flat-dog's nose in the presence of many onlookers. On another
occasion a big crowd were ready to mourn over a man who had swallowed
a fish bone that stuck in his neck. They offered Bull-all-the-time a
gun and other presents, and he drew forth the bone, curing the patient.
Still another time a woman had a swollen leg and my informant sucked at
it with his pipe and made the swelhng go down. He also knew how to
doctor spider bites, but did not treat snake bites or wounds. I saw the
pipe used by him, which was that revealed in a dream; it had horse
tracks incised near one end.

The mother of Bull-does-not-fall-down fasted when one of her
sons died and became a doctor for both wounds and illness. Once Gray-
bull was returning with a war party after an enemy had been killed.
The men cut off the enemy's hand and tied it to a long stick. As they
were walking along at night, Gray-bull came to walk beside the staff-
bearer and the hand struck him on the ear. He immediately became
deaf. When he got home, Bull-does-not-fall-down's mother treated him.
She took him into a sweatlodge, stuck a pipestem into his ear, and sucked
a little red stone out of it. Then Gray-bull recovered his hearing. He
believes the hand, that is, the enemy's ghost, put it into his ear. The
stone was of the kind usually found on ant-hills.

Goes-ahead had a pipestem that was painted red, and used it to
draw some blood out of a man afflicted with pneumonia. He drew it into
his own mouth and then spat it out. The patient recovered.

376 Anthropological Papers American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XXV,

Other practitioners blow or rub chewed medicinal substances,
hawitart, on the patient, the rubbing process being designated by the
word Mptsisuo. Any therapeutic potion is csiWed iwa-\-ici wa'tse (by
means of it they make them drink). How largely such draughts were
administered by the recognized doctors, I do not know for certain. They
were surely prescribed to some extent and also employed as a domestic
remedy by the laity in general. The 'sweet- sticks' have already been
referred to; Bull-all-the-time showed me a bunch of pine needles, which
he said were boiled into a tea and drunk for medicine.

Gray-bull described certain modes of treatment for specific affec-
tions. For erajmo (hterally, rotten stomach) the stomach was kneaded
towards the heart and bleeding was resorted to. Rheimiatism {irits-are)
was treated by snake or mole visionaries, who would burn incense and
rub on some tallow, or use the pipe to suck out blood, which they would
expectorate. They left no mark where the blood had been extracted.
Bull-all-the-time extracts blood in this manner to cure a coHc. For a
venereal affection cahed icise hahi'pak (literally, loins sick) the doctor
placed hot rocks under the patient's genitaha, made him drink some
powder (anmiunition) put in warm water, and threw some of this mix-
ture on him. Another disease, apparently also of venereal nature, in-
volves a swelHng of the groins and is known as arudyusud. The doctor
heats isk, places it on the groins to relieve the pain, and blows on them.
E this does not prove effective, he will lance the swollen parts, for if
these were to break of themselves an inflammation of the face would
result. Gray-bull lanced a swelling of this sort himseff when on the war-
path. Heated stones are continually used in treating this disease, the
body is kneaded, and there is an attempt to keep the bowels open. There
is another disease characterized by a mass of sores and aching joints.
In this case the best physicians are called, who wash the sores and use a
poultice with a special mixture.

Of all the wound doctors {ak-uwdc-diu) remembered by the Crow one
named Dap'ic takes precedence, for he was the only one who could
make his patients well forthwith and hardly ever failed. Gray-bull had
never seen him, but an old woman. Young-crane, recollected him. Gray-
bull said he had heard that once a man was so weak that he could neither
walk nor stand, so that Dap'ic had to make medicine to make him rise.
In going towards the creek, he acted like a buffalo cow with a calf. The
patient followed him. At the creek a fish came and ate up the matter
about the wound. Dap'ic took his patient out and showed the spectators
the hole in his body, then took him back to the river, dived with him for

1922.] Lowie, Religion of the Crow. 377

a while, got out, and repeated this procedure. Then the patient was as
well as before.

Dap'ic acquired his power by fasting at the hot springs of what is
now Thermopohs, Wyoming. One informant says he swam out to a httle
island in a pond, sat there for three days and observed the underground
spirits treating wounded men. Others narrated that some being took
him into the spring, sang medicine songs for him, and gave him his own
name, the one by which he has been known since, and the springs are
called Dap'tc irupxe (father of Dap'ic). After his return to camp, Dap'ic
went on the warpath and was shot. He told his comrade that he was a
medicineman. His friend answered, ''You are a medicineman and you
have forgotten that you are half dead." "I am going to doctor myself."
"If the people see you cure yourself, they will wait to have you cure them
and will give you plenty of property." Many people looked on as he
treated himself. The bullet had not gone through him, but was in his
body. He held an otter in his hands, showing its teeth. He was going
to dive into the river and have the otter remove the bullet. He sang
before entering the water, then dived into it. After four breaths he came
out again and the otter had the bullet in its mouth. Then all the people
knew about it. There was another battle and a man was shot with
an arrow; the shaft was pulled out, but the head remained sticking in the
wound. People asked the doctor to cure him. He told his patient' he
would dive with hmi and have the arrow point extracted by the otter.
He sang and painted himself, as well as the patient, then dived with him,
and when he came out the otter had the arrow-head in its mouth. The
man was cured. On another occasion an old man was shot in the fore-
head and the doctor took out the bullet. Once in the Wolf Mountains a
Crow was shot below the navel in a fight with the Dakota. There was a
watercourse nearbj'' and after damming it up to make it deep enough they
laid the patient in there. Dap'ic used the water-bull (bivmin tsirupe)
and the long-otter for his special guardian spirits. He sang over the
patient, hopped over him, and rode to camp with him, singing on the
way. In the morning the people formed two lines of spectators. They
made the patient rest on a high pillow and several men sang for him.
No person or dog was permitted to pass in front of him. The doctor had
his wife and daughter wear a robe and with them he approached the door
of the lodge, where the singing was going on continually. Dap'ic trans-
formed himself into a bull and made a snorting noise over the patient,
who rolled over. Then he bade the wounded man seize his tail and forth-
with he was able to stand up as though well. Dap'ic led him to the water.

378 Anthropological Papers American Museuvi of Natural History. [Vol. XXV,

re-assuining human shape on the way. He took him where the water
reached up to his chest and then dived down alone. Before so doing, he
whistled upstream, then downstream. The patient's blood flowed down-
stream, and he stood there for a long time awaiting the leech's return.
His wound healed. Only the wounded man saw the doctor in buffalo
shape. Later in life Dap'ic became bhnd because he had transgressed
one of his spiritual patron's rules.

According to one informant the legendary shaman who recovered a
drowned Crow's necklace' became a wound-doctor when he had returned
from his diving expedition.

Gray-bull remembered two famous wound-doctors; one was Bull-
does-not-fall-down's mother, who also treated other afflictions (see p.
375), the other was named One-eye. Neither permitted dogs about while
administering his treatment ; it was said that if a dog crossed their path
at that time the patient would die. My informant saw One-eye at
work on three occasions. Wlien he treated Crazy-head, who had been
shot from side to side, he painted white rings round the patient's eyes
and touched all his body with the tip of his hand, which had white clay
on it. He painted his own forehead with white clay, wore a buffalo robe,
and tied a plume to the back of the patient's head. He stood at the door
of the lodge, singing his song. The singers, including Gray-bull, were
indoors. The relatives of a wounded man always got as many young men
as possible to act as singers during the performance, and they would
sing the physician's song. One-eye danced at the door, first with one
foot, and rubbed a buffalo tail, which had a plume tied to it, against
the ground so that the dust flew. Everyone cheered him. He went to
the patient, blew on his abdominal wound, stood back, extended his
arms and bent his body. Crazy-head imitated these movements. Pus
and blood came pouring out of his wound. When all had come out, the
people in camp were told to stand in two rows extending from the lodge
to the river. Gray-bull did not see the procedure in the river since he was
one of the singers and thus obliged to remain in the lodge and continue
singing. Young-crane, Crazy-head's one-time wife, said that according
to her husband he was not cured by the doctor. Some time after that,
however, he went out to ease himself and in the morning there were
masses of blood there; from that time on his health improved.

Another informant mentions seeing four or five women take part in
the singing in company with the male drummers. He says the doctor

'This volume, 231.

1922.] Lowie, Religion of the Crow. 379

pawed the ground like a bull and licked the patient's wounds, drawing
out blood and pus from both sides. He made the sick man walk toward
the creek in the usual fashion, making four stops and each time causing
water and blood to run out. He waded into the river to the depth of the
patient's wound and made the blood and water flow out of it. Then the
man got well.

Arm-round-the-neck added only a few details on the basis of one
performance he had witnessed. In this case the physician blew into the
wound and ran back to the lodge, followed by the wounded man. This
informant said that some doctors had seen buffalo treating one another's
wounds in a vision and imitated what they had been shown. Others
might see other animals (otters?) and would then use an otterskin and
whistle instead of the buffalo tail. The wound doctors might purchase
their medicines.

The association of wound doctoring with the buffalo is of compara-
tive interest since it occurs elsewhere, e.g., among the Omaha, where a
whole fraternity of Ixiffalo \asionaries treat cases of this type.^

The treatment of a woman in labor has already been sketched else-
where.2 Sometimes no physician was called because there was no time.
In ancient times, according to Gray-bull, only women were obstetricians
(bid-ende ak-did) but now there are also some men who act in this capac-
ity. A man was certainly not normally permitted to attend during his
wife's travail, and it seems no other males, not even boys, were allowed
in the lodge since their presence was believed to protract the period of
delivery. Otherwise the husband was not subject to any taboo.

Gray-bull's wife had obtained her obstetrical knowledge from a
visionary, to whom she paid a horse. She regarded the information as a
secret. The medicine was a combination of a horned toad and a root;
she would rub it down the patient's back. The woman in labor clung to a
post planted by her bed and assumed a kneeling posture. Not the doctor,
but anyone present, cut the navel cord {icW-pe). After the delivery the
mother received a portion of iax'cm'e, a kind of fatty food (probably pem-
mican) which she ate just once. For several days she abstained from
cooked meat and was not allowed to stoop.

There were no special beliefs as to twins (ddtsg'e) and Gray-bull
did not know of any case of triplets.

■AUce C. Fletcher and Francis La Flesche, "The Omaha Tribe" (Trcentxj-sexenih Annual Report,
Bureau of American Ethnology, Washington, 1911), 487.
-This series, vol. 9, 218.

SOULS; GHOSTS; HEREAFTER.

The metaphysical tendency is very moderately developed among the
Crow. There are no profound theories as to the soul and such reflec-
tions as may occasionally be garnered on this and related topics are not
infrequently mutually contracUctory.

The word for soul is ira^xe (my soul, hard"xe; souls, iraaxud). It
is used in speaking of a person's will power and is clearly connected with
the word for 'shadow,' irdxaxe. Gray-bull said that all animals {hdxuam-
bice) have souls, that is why the Crow do not kill dogs. The sacred stones
taken along on war expeditions also had souls. Another informant,
however, denied that animals were behoved to have souls. Sometimes
the soul of a dead person will put a tooth or a lock of hair of its own into
a person's body and cause him to go insane. The soul is beheved to stay
by the burial and sometimes an owl-hke cry is heard there. In this last
statement there is probably a confusion between 'soul' and 'ghost,' for
below we shall find that the deceased live in camps of their own, while
hooting hke an owl is generally described as an attribute of ghosts.

The word for ghost is a*pardaxe, which is also sometimes used to

render 'devil.' It seems to be etymologically connected with that for

soul, but I am unable to explain the first part of the word. Another

word recorded for 'ghost' is maxutrete which denotes lack of body.

Ghosts are feared and to compare a person to a ghost is to offer a grave

insult. In a myth a woman at once leaves her husband when he hkens

her to a ghost.^ The whirlwind is taken for a ghost and an approaching

one will be thus addressed: —

an-dare k'awik', di-t"at" da!

Where you are going it is bad, you alone go (imperative) !

Ghosts are not regarded as uniformly malevolent, however. I heard
of a woman named Gun, who had had a vision of a ghost. She would
invite a crowd of people, darken her room, and make everyone sing and
hsten. Then something came and the people could not make out what
the being had said. Gun would interpret its words and prophesy what
was going to happen. The gift of detecting lost property and of determin-
ing the fate of lost individuals seems to be preeminently derived from
ghosts. In the most recent times an old couple had lost money and asked
an Indian policeman for assistance. The latter, being a great wag,
pretended to recover the money by means of his medicine, — a whirl-
wind ghost. He smoked incense, made the sign of a whirlwind in front of
his face, and after chanting a song hooted Hke a ghost.

'This volume, 118.

380

1922.] Lowie, Religion of the Croic. 381

Once the Crow were on the Musselshell, while the Dakota were near
Sheridan. A Crow party went out and captured some Dakota horses.
Two of the braves did not come back; even after ten days they had not
retm-ned. Their brother went to an old man who had ghost medicine,
gave him horses and property, and asked him to find out where the two
men were and whether dead or aUve. That night the old man told every-
one in his lodge to go outside. All the relatives of the two missing men
came and stayed outside the tipi. The old man put out his fire and began
to sing, shaking his rattle. He made a noise Hke an owl, went out of the
smoke hole, and returned to the tent. The whole lodge shook when he
came back. The spectators heard people talking but could not under-
stand them. Then the medicineman called the outsiders and lit up his
fire. He told them the two young men had not been killed, but were in
camp at that very moment and bade' them look for them. That very
night one of the two missing men came back to his tipi. The old man
had seen the two in camp and told the other people. They were there
looking on while their tribesmen were looking for them.

A sister of Horn's wife once went to St. Xa\der for a visit. On the
same day Gray-bull and others went there too. The following day they
got to the Bighorn, where a Fourth of July celebration was being held.
The Lodge Grass people stayed for the festivities, but the woman did not
appear. They looked for her all over the district, but failed to find her.
Her horse returned to Gray-bull's herd without a saddle. Then a ghost
medicine woman, Stops's mother, was called. They gave her two horses
and other j^ropert}- and asked her to find the lost woman. That night she
did not tell the people to leave, but put out the fire and closed up the
smoke hole. She began to sing and hooted like an owl and the whole
tent began to shake as though fiom a whirlwind. The audience heard
talking but could not understand what was being said. They also heard
the medicine woman, but could not understand her either. When a child
who was with Gray-bull began to cry, all the noise ceased. The medicine
woman kindled the fire and told the people that if the child had not cried
she should have learned about the woman's whereabouts; she had been
told that she was close but the exact place was not revealed. More pres-
ents were offered to the shaman to make her try once more, but she re-
fused and the woman was never found: The Indians thought she might
have been killed by some white man or turned insane, for she had gone
crazj^ several times before.

The following curious tale was recounted by Gray-bull as a personal
adventure.

382 Anthropological Papers American Museum, of Natural History. [Vol. XXV,

I went on the waipath toward the Missouri River. Right above the mouth of
Plum River I came to a square-tent camp of about a thousand tents. There was a
little house there, and a tall white man, who talked Crow, took us all to this house,
and told us to look inside. In this house there were bunks covered with gray blankets.
The white man told us to take off the covers and then we saw under all of them the
skeletons of men, about thirty of them. The joints were fastened together with wire.
When we got out, we stopped there for the night. The Indians began to sing. The
white man told us to keep quiet for they were going to make the skeletons alive again
and if we wanted to see it we might. We told him we had never known of any one
dead coming to life. He said they were going to raise the skeletons to live in four
nights. That night we heard a band-drum and cheers from the whites all night. We
stayed there for two nights, consumed our food, and told the white man we were going
to leave. He told us to stay and killed a beef for us. For four nights we always heard
the band. After the fourth night the white man came and told us the skeletons had
risen to life. He took all of us to the house, opened the door and told our captain to
look, but he was afraid. One man was very brave and .said, "I'll go and see," for he
doubted it. His comrade said he would go in also and a third likewise said he would
do so. Wolf-head was the first man who wanted to go in. Wolf-head asked me what I
was going to do and I said I would do it. Wolf-head told the captain to keep quiet. When
all four of us were inside, the white man closed the door. It was early in the morning.
The white man took the cover off one, and then we saw a white man lying there very
thin. He looked at all four of us. Wolf-head shook hands with him and said: "Ho!"
The other just shook his hand and while he was holding his hand Wolf-head asked,
"Are there people yet over there in the ghost land?" The white man answered,
"Ho!" The Indian said: "Whenever I become a chief and people honor me, I'll see
your people." The next Crow shook hands and .said, "When I've given horses to
all my relatives and. captured picketed horses, I'll see your people." The third one
shook hands and said: "Are there people on the other side?" "Ho!" "I want to see
your people soon." I shook hands with him myself and told him I did not want to
be afraid, but wanted to be an old man and a big chief. The white man said, "Ho!"
We shook hands with the other whites in the bunks and repeated our conversation,
then we went outside. The rest of our party asked, "How is it?" "They are living."

Then the white man who spoke Crow told our captain if he doubted he should
stay till the next day and see the people come out of the house. We stayed till the
next morning, when we dressed and painted up and came to the place. We saw all the
white men seated outside on a bench. One white man had a hole in his cheek where
he had been shot and matter was running out of it. This man asked us whether any
of us could speak Dakota. Our captain said he could talk Assiniboin. The white
man with the hole said he was also an Assiniboin. He said he was going to talk and
wished the Indian to listen. He talked in Assiniboin and a.sked the captain where he
was going. The captain answered that he was on the warpath. The white man said,
"When you get to camp, don't be afraid; go to the camp, take a picketed horse and
kill some of the enemy; don't be afraid, for you are to be people twice. Don't be
afraid of anything. The Crow who died are living in a camp. I myself can't help
myself and have to stay with the whites." The other Indians told the captain to ask
what was the matter with the man's face. He asked him. "The Piegan killed an
Assiniboin on top of a hill, where there were rocks and trenches. While the Piegan
were in the trenches, 1 went up and struck at them, shouting that I was the first to

1922.] Louie, Religion of the Crow. 383

strike a coup. The women and men said I did not strike a coup, but only rocks. I
tried again, sang a song and made medicine. I went to the trench. One man was
pointing a gun at me. As I was going to stab him, he shot me in the face. From that
day I knew nothing until the day I saw you Crow." The Indian asked the white
whether he was going to die again, but he answered he did not know.

We got back to the Crow camp. The one who said he wanted to see the other side
soon died about two seasons later. What he wanted came true : he died soon after.
Wolf-head, who had said he was going to see the other people when the Crow all liked
him, was killed some years later. What he had said came true. The Crow honored
him very much. The third man who said he would give horses to all his relatives did
what he said; he was killed on the Bighorn. What I said is coming true : I am a chief
and pretty old. I believe those men were ghosts. At first I did not believe in it but
after seeing that it came true for the others I believed in it. Since then I have
never seen any ghosts.

This last narrative, whatever experiences it may be based on, con-
nects behefs as to ghosts with the conceptions entertained of the here-
after. This subject seems to have exercised the Crow imagination to a
very hmited extent. So far as there is any standard belief it is to the
effect that the dead live in camps like those of the Crow and have a
superior way of hving. This might be used as an encouragement to the
warriors, as in Gray-bull's mysterious story. Sometimes before a battle
the heralds would cry out: kuke asuk'\ "Over there there are (also)
lodges!" A number of informants declared they knew nothing about
life after death and none seemed to exhibit any particular interest in the
matter. Those who had any conceptions based them on the reports of
tribesmen who are believed to have died and returned to consciousness.
These accounts, such as they are, follow.

The dead go to an Indian camp. Once a Crow died. He got to two rivers and
beyond there was a large camp of buffalo skin tipis. He was invited into one lodge.
Indoors everything was furnished after the old style, with buffalo robes on the ground
to sit on. The owner looked at the visitor and said, "I see something about you I
don't like. I don't like otters. Your people are down below." The visitor said,
"Then I'll go back home." He came to and told what had happened to him. He
was eager to go back to the dead again and died once more soon after.

There was a Crow who was shot and was brought back to camp. He died of his
wound. The next morning he got up again, went round, and told the people that all
the dead were camped together and had a better way of living than the Crow; hence
he said, "Don't be afraid to die." When I was seriously sick, I was eager to see my
parents, who were already dead. I remembered what the old man had told me. If it
was so, I thought, I might be happy with my relatives since all the dead camped
together.

Two men went west to the coast, where there were no more white men. The
Crow believe the dead are living over there. The two travelers met a man without
moccasins who knew their names without their telling him, and he sent them back.
They set out in the summer and came back in the fall.

384 Anthropological Papers American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XXV,

There was a man who died and came to life again. He said that all who had died
were still living and that they were better people than the Crow. The Crow believed
it.

One of my (Old-dog's) own brothers got sick and weak and ready to die. He took
a knife and tried to stab himself but was too feeble. Then he lay on the ground with
his body on the knife and thus killed himself. He lay there for a while, then woke up
and told his story. His younger brother, who had owned a fine gray horse, had died
before him. This younger brother took him on his horse riding towards the camp of
the dead. 'T could hear the singing of praise songs over there; also loud talking.
They were singing, Ts that person coming already?' As we proceeded, he said, 'My
horse is fast, but we have brought him.' Then my brother angrily struck me in the
chest, saying, 'You are stingy and think too much of your horse. If so, go back.'
He jumped off and I came back to life." This man told us he had found that the dead
had a camp like ours and a good way of living. After this experience he did not die
again until relatively recently (since the Crow have been on their present reservation).

SPECIAL MEDICINE OBJECTS.

Since most objects derive their sacred character from a vision, the
number of medicines is theoretically unhmited. However, they can
usually be classified in certain categories. The relativie paucity of medi-
cine bundles is remarkable considering their prominent place among the
Hidatsa and the Blackfoot. Similarly the notion of painted tipis plays a
very subordinate part. Altogether it seems fair to say that while prob-
ably no important class of sacred objects characteristic of the Plains is
wholly unrepresented, the Crow differ in a decided shifting of emphasis.

Medicine Rocks.

The medicine rocks (bacoritsi'tse) occupy an important position in
Crow religious thought. In some respects they correspond to the Black-
foot iniskim, but the notion that their prototype is the oldest part of the
earth and a being independent of all others, the Sun (Old-Man-Coyote)
included,^ rather suggests Dakota metaphysics.

A bacoritsi'tse is primarih^ characterized by its appearance, which
suggests that of some part of an animal's body, perhaps most frequently
of the head (Figs. 1, 2). These stones were not as a rule bestowed in
visions, but were found accidentally by anyone and then adopted as the
finder's medicine. They were wrapped up with numerous offerings,
such as beads or decorative strips of skin, greased with castoreum, and
supplicated for long life and wealth. More particularly were they taken
to a performance of the Singing the Cooked Meat festival, at which each
guest owning such a rock pressed it to his breast, kissed it, and addressed
prayers to it. According to In-the-mouth, the bacoritsi'tse are found by
the odor they emit, which also indicates what kind of incense they de-
mand, e.g., whether ise or sweetgrass. All Indians agree that bacoritsi'-
tse have a tendency to multiply Uke hving beings. According to one
informant it was customary to unwrap them when the first thunder was
heard in the spring.

In 1910 I purchased several of these medicine rocks, generally from
young Indians who had inherited them and no longer used them. I
recollect paying as much as ten dollars for one; another was offered to
me at the price of thirty dollars.

Gray-bull owned several bacoritsi'tse. He showed me one resembUng
a mule hoof. Soon after finding it, he had obtained three mules and had
come to own a hundred and twenty head of horses. This stone he never

•This volume, 15.

385

Fig. 1 (50.1-4008a). Medicine Rock with Offerings.

386

Fig. 2 (50.1-4010). Medicine Rock with Offerings.

387

388 Anthropological Papers American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XXV ^

took to a Singing the Cooked Meat feast, though a subsequent state-
ment indicates that he used it with his others when he himseK arranged
this ceremonj'-. One of the other stones resembled a buffalo head, still
another had horns and the semblance of eyes but Gray-bull did not know
what it was. His principal hacoritsi'tse he kept enclosed in several cloth
wrappers, the whole being stored in a rawhide container of envelope
shape. The body of the stone was completely covered with buckskin,
which was decorated with rows of beads. The rock itself was said to
have natural horsetrack markings on one side and to suggest a human
head on the other; a deer was also marked on it. With the rock there
were the usual trimmings of weasel-skin, elk teeth, and the like; also
some sweetgrass. The stone always faced upward (ise ivdkus-a-\- uk). In
the same wrapping, but considered a distinct medicine, there was a very
small bundle containing a Httle stone on which might be seen or imagined
a face. This had been found by a little child and according to my
authority had since then grown to twice its original size. Gray-bull
would pray to it as follows: "May I have horses and property, live till
the next year, and fare well {itsik' ata hakd 'kuwi)\" While wearing it sus-
pended from his neck, he had captured a rifle, two horses, and an eagle
feasting on a buffalo, besides experiencing other forms of good luck.

Normally hacoritsi'tse were not sold but inherited. Gray-bull
inherited his principal stone from his stepfather.

In-the-mouth told of a remarkable hacoritsi'tse shaped on one side
like a buffalo with a bird on top, on the other like a horse mounted by a
httle being in human form. In going on an expedition the owner would
ask the buffalo for success, e.g., for a horse. This stone gave birth to
two stones ("had two children"), which multiplied in turn. The 'children'
were given to some men as captain's medicines. Some people offered
as much as ten horses for the medicine, but the owner would not sell it.
The owners would open up the bundle and show the contents to close
relatives, but would not permit any handhng. Sweetgrass was used for
incense with this stone. It was discovered by the wife of Sees-the-bull's-
member, a reckless young man who had squandered all his property at
gambhng and deserted his wife. She went out crying and scented sweet-
grass, whereupon she saw the hacoritsi'tse shining and picked it up. That
night her husband returned and through the stone he secured a captain's
vision. By means of it he was able to cause buffalo to come when they
were scarce.

Two points are noteworthy in connection with the last-named stone.
The circumstances of its discovery, for one thing, ahgn it with medicines

1922.] Lowie, Religion of the Crow. 389

secured in visions. Secondly, its use for charming buffalo constitutes a
specific point of resemblance with the Blackfoot iniskim.

Gray-bull told me that Medicine-crow owned one bacoritsi'tse
that he esteemed above the rest. It had been found by Medicine-Crow's
mother and had reproduced itself since then. When people unwrapped
it, they saw horsetracks, would go on a raid and bring back horses;
also an enemy was killed. It is marked with a man's head and indications
of a bird, horses, and buffalo. Medicine-crow did not use this stone at the
Singing the Cooked Meat ceremony, for he is under a taboo against
eating tongues and at the feast other people who cUd eat tongues might
touch the rock with their faces. Medicine-crow's parents had owned the
stone and abstained from tongue, so he does likewise.

Another informant gave more details concerning this stone. It
had been seen in a vision by Looks-at-a-bull's penis (tslrup-ir-ik' ac)
and later found by his wife. Medicine-crow's mother, whom he married in
accordance with the levirate. The woman always kept it under her
dress. Her husband wanted to see it. One day she said, "We'll go out
and I'll show it to you." They went to a coulee, and there she took it
out and showed him the medicine. One stone looked like a bird, another
hke a buffalo, the third like a horse, the fourth like a person resembling
Two-leggings. There was some hair hanging down from a willow and the
man tried to take it, but his wife asked him not to do so. Then they
went home and on the way they found a bunch of hair and a piece of fat;
with the latter they greased the bacDritsi'tse and wrapped it up in the
hair. They got to a hill. The woman bade her husband remain there in
order to get another vision of the stone and went home alone. In
the night the man dreamt about all sorts of things the stone told him to
do; they showed hun how to lead a war party and how to make medicine.

Medicine-crow was growing up as a boy. One day he told his (step-)
father that he was hungry. All the people were starving, for there were
no buffalo. Looks-at-a-bull's penis made medicine. He made buffalo
tracks and that night he sang his medicine song, shaking his rattle.
The next morning they saw buffalo wherever they looked. His medicine
was genuine. Now Medicine-crow had plenty to eat.

Looks-at-a-bull's-penis made medicine for Medicine-crow and two
other men, who would go out and bring horses for him. Thus he came to
own a great many, all of them black. Early in the spring his stones were
light in weight, later in the sununer they would get heavier. In the
coldest winter there would be frost on them, for they breathed. The

390 Anthropological Papers American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XXV,

owner made hoop medicine^ for Medicine-crow and l)ade him go on the
warpath and bring a pinto from camps on the Rosebud. His son went
there and brought a herd including a buckskin pinto. Looks-at-a-bull's-
penis made medicine for Two-leggings, asking him to choose between
killing a person and capturing horses. Two-leggings chose the latter and
brought two horses, one of them a buckskin. The owner dreamt about
Takes-it-back-twice and gave him the bacdritsi'tse to take on the war-
path, but on the way one of the horns of the stone broke off and he was
not successful. The next time, however, he captured a white horse and
gave him to Looks-at-a-bull's-penis.

The bacdritsi'tse always told this man where the Crow should go so
as to avoid a bad winter and have plenty to eat. Whenever he received
such instructions, he had a crier proclaim them. Thus they avoided
hard times. According to my informant, this medicine stone descended
to Little-nest, Looks-at-a-bull's-penis' own son, who unwrapped it
last spring (1915).

Charges-camp told me about an old woman named Otter-woman,
who discovered a bacdritsi'tse that brought her good luck. The owner
was always fortunate in getting property. When the camp was moved,
this rock was always taken to lead the people to the right hunting-
grounds. War leaders would go to Otter-woman, pay her a fee, and get
her medicine with whatever dreams she had had about it.

'This refers to another medicine seen by him in a vision.

BUNDLES.

In a certain sense it seems artificial to segregate one class of Crow
medicines as 'bundles.' Literally, almost all medicines are bundles, i.e.,
wrapped-up aggregations of sacred objects. This, e.g., would fully
apply to the medicine rocks. On the other hand, even where this might
not hold it remains true that for the native the material characteristics
of a medicine are quite subordinate to its spiritual significance, which
from the nature of the case must be at least generically uniform. Never-
theless, from a comparative point of view it seems proper to separate
those medicines which are not only physically more complex but have
greater dignity and even tribal significance. Such bundles are not
numerous among the Crow and unlike those of the Hidatsa and Black-
foot they do not conform to a single pattern. The Medicine Pipe and the
Horse Dance medicine, both of which are described elsewhere, are known
to be of alien origin, the former being derived from the Hidatsa, the latter
from the Assiniboin. Among the Crow medicines derived from indigenous
visions, the Sun dance doll,i the Tobacco medicines, and the Medicine
Arrow probably approximate most closely to the bundles of other tribes.
Owing to the importance of the sacred arrows among the Cheyenne, it is
quite possible that even in the last-mentioned instance we are deaHng
with at least the adaptation of a foreign idea. Both the Medicine Arrow
and the Doll were evidently passed on from one close relative to another,
differing in this respect from the Tobacco medicine, which was acquired
by a selection of sacred objects from the adopting chapter of the society
at the time of initiation.

Since the other bundles have been described elsewhere, I will here
confine myself to the Medicine Arrow (aruut maxpe) concerning which I
interviewed Hillside and Flat-head-woman in 1914. I will begin with
Hillside's narrative.

Hillside's Account of the Arrow Bundle. Cut-ear's father was my
brother. He was young and very poor. Near Forsyth there is a peak
called Buatarec. There he went up ; in order to get up he had to make a
kind of ladder. He chopped off a finger and fasted there. Then he had a
vision of the Seven Stars; they appeared as seven persons and sang songs
to him. One of them had a medicine arrow in his possession. This one
sang a song. The arrow was covered; it was notched and was held with
the notch pointing the other way. He sang a song and threw the arrow,

^This series, vol. 16, 12 seq.

391

392 Anthropological Papers American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XXV,

which ahghted by the Crow camp. Then the visionary heard the In-
dians crying for joy and saw a big herd of horses. This was the song: —

awe c6ndat hirlace.
Land in any say this.

He threw the arrow as in the arrow-game. The one who sang had a red
arrow, which I have now. Four of the seven visitants had arrows. The
second took a black arrow. He sang a song with the same words, then
threw the arrow, which went toward the Dakota and struck their land.
Then the Crow were heard shouting and praying for first-coups, and
people were seen entangled in a fight. The Crow were heard saying:
ahd\ (Thank you!) The third arrow was green, this now belongs to
Flat-head- woman. Another star held it and sang: —
hutse hiiwa" tsewik"; hutse hu wik'.

The wind to come I'll make; the wind is coming.

He threw the arrow. It struck the Dakota country. The visionary
heard horses making a noise and the Crow shouting 'thanks/ and saw
many dead enemies. The fourth arrow was white. The fourth star
picked it up. The first star said to him, "That arrow is no good, don't
throw it." Nevertheless, he sang and threw it, but it wiggled and came
back. The first three stars must have made it come back.

I was about ten years old when among the River Crow. At about
eighteen I came to the Ac'araho band to visit my brother. I had heard
about his going out on war parties as captain and being successful. I
joined his party. He gave me a black wolf and sent me out as scout. I
was not sleepy, but a good runner, an early riser, and a good marksman.
Whenever I caught horses on my trips I always gave one or two to my
brother. I had a reason for so doing. The wolf was the first tiling he
gave me. When I had proved a good shot, my brother said, "You are all
right now, you may be a war captain."

I made several trips to the Dakota, but ^ame back empty-handed
three or four times. Then I w^ent out with a magpie my brother gave me.
On one trip in the Wolf mountains the Dakota tracked me. I got scared,
but made my escape, though they followed me. I was tired out and fell
asleep. I had felt badly before falling asleep, saying, 'That medicine
of mine is bad, I have no medicine." In my sleep the owner of the arrow
visited me. My brother had never told me about his vision, but in my
sleep I saw an arrow thrown toward where he had fasted. It ahghted on
an island there. There were plenty of horses, the best of them a bay
with feathers on his forehead, and I heard the Crow shouting for joy.
I woke up and bade my followers be ready when the snow should melt
and make their way to me wherever they might be. It was. the beginning

1922.] Lowie, Religion of the Crow. 393

of winter then. 'Til go out and bring a big herd of horses. In all my
troubles so far I have done no leading at all, but now I'll take you out in
a different way, I'll take the medicine arrow with me." I did not know
yet whether the owner would give it to me or not. •

When it was time for me to start, I said to my brother, "I shall go
out on the warpath." Then he asked of his own accord, "Do you wish
to take the arrow?" ''Yes." "Very well." When men made their
first expedition as captains, their following was composed of poor young
fellows. Of the men whom I had offered to lead with the arrow, the
majority did not trust me and said they would not go with me. Only
Spotted-horse had confidence and accompanied me, otherwise I had new
followers. Where I had seen the arrow, there I came upon the enemy.
Flat-head-woman was with me. We saw the smoke from the enemy's
camp. The snow was ankle-deep. We packed ropes. In my dream I
had seen horses on an island feeding on cottonwood bark, and we cap-
tured fifty head of horses. Flat-head-woman got the bay. We got away
that night. We got near the site of BilUngs, where the Nez Perce were
camped. The Crow had left. I got to the Nez Perce camp next morning.
Flat-head-woman captured a bay and a gray horse. I gave him the gray.

I took pity on Flat-head-woman and thought I'd make him a war
captain. So when I returned I asked my brother, "Is this the only
medicine arrow?" He asked in return, "Have you seen any?" "Yes,
a blue and a black one ; I want to make one for Flat-head-woman. ' ' ' 'He
is no relative of ours." "That does not matter. He was my younger
brother's comrade, and I want to give it to him."

The next time I went to the same place as before with a larger fol-
lowing. The people began to beHeve in me. This time the camp was
below the first place. I had dogs and children with me. I took my party
to the edge of the camp, brought back horses, and gave them to the young
boys. Then I sent the rest to get all the unpicketed horses, and came
home with a hundred head.

The next time I went with a large party. Long-horse had been
killed and I went to avenge him. At Talhck's (?) Fork there were seven
Dakota in a camp. I was on a good horse, killed one, took his gun, struck
a first-coup, and scalped him. We killed all the Dakota but one.

The Crow were camped on a creek above BilUngs. The Dakota were
there and stole some of our horses. I trailed them, stole thirty of theirs
and got home with them.

Wlien Long-horse was killed, the Dakota had stolen some of our
horses. The Crow were on Trout Creek. The Dakota came to kill the

394 Anthropolngicnl Papers American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XXV,

Whites, instead they had to flee, and the Whites told the Crow about it.
The eneni}' got to the Musselshell, into a clump of pines. No one fol-
lowed them except me, who killed one, scalped and struck him.

I thought I was using my medicine all alone and decided to give
part of it to Flat-head- woman. So I gave him all my power and ceased
using it myself, not going on the warpath thereafter.

The medicine arrow was taken out only on the warpath when the
enemy was seen, and early in the spring. Now it is taken out only once
a year. When we saw the enemy, we took it out and prayed to it. Now
we pray for horses and property. This spring, when Flat-head-woman
seemed to be dying, they opened it for him and prayed on his behalf.

In a tipi where the arrow is kept no one is supposed to throw any-
thing; further, no menstruating women are allowed there.

My arrow is red; Flat-head- woman's, made by me, is blue; Fire-
bear had the black one. Old-tail has a red one patterned on mine, and
Bushy-tail had a black one in imitation of Four-bear's.

When my brother gave me the arrow, he gave up his right to the
medicine. When I thought I had enough, I passed it on to Flat-head-
woman. Nu' pa-kurutc (Takes-back-a-woman-twice) was the nickname
of my elder brother, given on account of one father's clansman^; his
real name was Bear-in-the-water. My brother gave me the name
Woman- with-plenty-of -horses (mi isScg'e ahoc).

The stone arrow-head (about 2}^ inches long) worn round my neck is
the head of mv medicine arrow.

Flat-head-woman's Arrow Bundle. For the opportunity to see an
arrow bundle, I am indebted to Jim Carpenter, my interpreter, who pre-
vailed upon his father-in-law. Flat-head- woman, to unwrap it for me on
June 20, 1914. Flat-head- woman began with this preliminary state-
ment : —

"The Cheyenne also had a medicine arrow, but when the Crow got
theirs, they no longer had an advantage over the latter. In the old days
of war parties men had to pay a good price to see the medicine, but now I
am wilhng to show it for $5."

The medicine bundle was about five feet long, with feathers extend-
ing at each end beyond the outermost cloth wrapping. Flat-head-
woman had a little girl bring some live embers from the iron stove, and
divided them into two heaps, about three feet from each other, one much

'This series, vol. 21,41.

1922.] Lowie, Religion of the Crow. 395

smaller than the other. Then he strewed some material for incense
(ground cedar?) on each heap, and alternately lowered each end toward
the heap nearer to it. The bundle, after being taken down, had been
resting on a blanket spread on the ground of the tent. With some mut-
tered words of prayer Flat-head-woman opened the bundle. The cloth
wrappings were folded back on the sides without disturbing their rela-
tive positions. There were two outer cloth wrappings, then a sack made
of a complete buffalo calfskin with the head on, out of which was pulled
a rawhide cyhnder open at both ends and of more unifoim width, as
well as rather longer, than the common cylindrical medicine bags.
Turning the tail end of the calfskin sack inside out, Flat-head-
woman exposed paintings of horsetracks and human figures, the latter
representing Dakota. "This picture was drawn before I started; then
I went out and killed some Dakota. The horsetracks represent a horse
named to me by a visionary adviser to be stolen from the Dakota. The
calfskin is the main cover of the bundle, but I keep it wrapped up in
cloth for fear it might be struck by lightning." In the rawhide cover,
there are two sticks about three feet in length; originally there was
a third, but it was lost. "We hunted for it in the mountains. It was
foggy. At last I found it, but then I was afraid to touch it and left it
there." Inside the rawhide cylinder was another sack of canvas.
Though it is of poor quahty. Flat-head-woman explained, it is the one
prescribed in a vision. Inside of it was a colored wrapper; then followed
a blue wrapper; a reddish (?) wrapper; another cloth wrapper; a green
wrapper; and when the last-mentioned cover was thrown back there was
nothing to be seen but a large bunch of feathers. Now Flat-head-woman
combined the two incense heaps and strewed incense on the top. Then he
carefully arranged the feathers and took out from among them the arrow.
It had a stone head about one inch long, a shaft of birch wood (?), with
a standing feather at the end, and four tails of horses Flat-head-woman
brought home from war. Every time he captured horses a tail was
added, each representing a different war party on which good horses
were cut loose. My informant's narrative follows.

Flat-head-woman's Tale. In the old times when there was disease
people would offer fine calico cloths to the arrow. In time of war people
would say to it, "If I am not killed, I'll give you new cloth" (or some
other gift).

In order to own this I had to go through a good many hardships.
(Here he took smoke out of a redstone pipe and pointed the stem at the
arrow.) "Why," the owner asked me, "do you want this so badly? You

396 Anthropological Papers American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XXV,

are not related to us, you are a different person altogether." Then Hill-
side, his brother, said, "He was the comrade of my younger brother who is
dead. They loved each other, that's why I wish to give it to him. Don't
say any more about it (dirisal)." So the owner said: "Tell him to fetch
four birch (?) sticks." I went to look for four good ones, found them and
brought them to him. The owner peeled them, trimmed them, and put
them up to dry. There were about seven lodges of the owner's relatives
who camped together. I took buffalo meat and put some in front of
every one of these lodges, thus the owner became well-disposed toward
me and wilHng to give me the medicine. After the sticks were dried, they
were turned over to me. Nothing was said about the feathering of the
arrow till spring, when word was sent that they were ready to feather the
stick for me. The snow was melting. The owner called all his brothers
and me to his lodge. A buffalo hide with its tanned white side up was
used to put the stick on. Then they tried to find out who was a good
arrow-maker. One man was named, but the others did not consider
him suited for the purpose. Finally I was sent to an old man, who hap-
pened to be related to me. I said to him, "Brother, they want to give
me the arrow." So the old man came, smoothed the arrow between two
rocks and notched it. Then the owner told me the red plmne on the
shaft represented the fire. "If you are in battle, carrying this bundle,
don't be afraid of the enemy, they can't hit you with their arrows.
Since we have made this one, we'll take the Dakota by their bangs and
have their foreheads to the ground." The owner said that he had seen
his arrow crossing that of the Cheyenne, i.e., the Crow arrow was
superior. (At this point Flat-head-woman offered smoke to his arrow.)

The owner said, "The day before yesterday, as I came out of my
tent, there were seven cranes flying in the air. Go and bring one of
those seven. Get one of your friends who is a good shot to go with you."
I thought it was impossible : the cranes must be far off and were possibly
already in some foreign land by that time. I felt badly, still I went out,
and told my comrade what was to be done. He laughed. "How can we
see them? We can't see them; it is impossible." Still he went along to
please me. We pretended then to go out hunting, went up-stream, and
looked about in the marshes. We kept going. There was a sleety snow-
storm. Suddenly the clouds were gone, and my comrade, pointing at
the prairie, said: "Look at the white-tail deer there." When I looked, it

was the seven cranes making their pr pr pr sounds. There

happened to be a coulee leading up to them, so we got about as close as
Jack's tent from here (about fifty feet). Then I told my comrade.

1922.] Lowie, Religion of the Crow. 397

"You are a good marksman, kill the biggest one." So he aimed, shot,
and missed. The cranes went straight up. I was down-hearted. Onlj'-
black spots could be seen where the cranes were flying on high. "You
pretend to be a good shot, you have caused my downfall," I said to my
comrade. As I looked up, the birds began to come down and ahghted
again in the spot where they had been shot at. When they ahghted, my
comrade again wanted to shoot, but I took the gun away from him,
aimed at the big one, fired, and missed him. The birds went up. I was
down-hearted, but looked up and thought the birds would come down
again. They came back to their old place. Then my comrade took the
gun, shot, and missed again. They went up straight in the air. We lay
on our backs and watched. They came down again. My comrade took
the gun, made medicine, and fired. We heard a dull sound as if the shot
had struck something. The birds all flew straight up into the air,— small
specks hardly to be seen, but we could hear the noise they made. I
scolded my companion, but he said, "Only six of them are gone, there's
one coming now." The seventh alighted in the same place whence they
had flown up before. I was going to shoot it, but my comrade would not
let me, ran after the crane, threw his blanket over it, and caught it.
(Here smoke was again offered).

The owner, in sending me out, had told me he should wait for me in
a certain place. I took the bird, and we ran back to camp. The bird
had a long neck, and I had its neck hanging out. When I approached the
lodge I was laughing and full of joy ; those inside were all astonished . The
owner called for the bird, and had it sitting in front of him. I expected
that he would pull out the long feathers, but he only took two long ones,
one from each side of the wing, and one from the middle. These three
he put down. The two long ones are on the arrow now. The old arrow-
maker was to do the fixing up.

Now the owner said to Hillside: "You, too, claim to have had a
vision of it. Do j^ou make half of it, and I'll make half of it. You'll give
him some of your power, and I'll give him some of mine." Hillside said,
"Very well, we'll make it all green. We'll make the plumes green that
are to go on. We'll have the enemies' horses for its plumes, and I'll
make a covering from the skin of a young buffalo calf. That is all for
me; now do you start yours." The owner said: "I will make a red
plume to represent fire. We'll shape an arrow-head of rawhide. If
(to Flat-head-woman) in your vision you see the rawhide paint gone,
open the bundle, and if it is gone, then make a stone head." That is
what happened, and so I have a stone point. "If either you or Hillside,

398 Anthropological Papers American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XXV,

or I, should see the arrow point of rawhide gone in our visions/' said the
owner, "we'll replace it with stone. Get the hide of a four-year-old
buffalo, we'll use that for a cover." I went, killed a buffalo, and brought
the hide. When it was not yet dry, the owner painted the rawhide.
"This represents the painting on your blanket when you return from an
expedition on which an enemy has been killed. Such and such a cloth
shall be used for a wrapping. Put a plug of tobacco at the bottom for
the arrow to smoke." I was about thirty years old when this bundle
was made, and the tobacco is still there.

The arrow-maker was told how to put the different paints and other
decorations on the arrow. He covered it with green paint. He was
instructed by the owner and Hillside. When it was completed, they laid
it down and told me to get all kinds of feathers for the arrow to rest on.
Then the bird was given back to me, and they told me to send it home.
I went out some distance and set it down. It began to run and dis-
appeared. It was not dead.

Everything looked common to me till the sacks were made, then it
began to look like real medicine to me. It was wrapped and tied. I
took it up. After a while the owner came to tell me to tie two eagle
wing-feathers to each end of the bundle. After several years he came to
me and said, "Open your medicine, I had a vision last night that it
(the arrow-head) was gone; let us see whether it is true." I do not know
how it happened, but the arrow point was gone. The owner put on a
stone head then, and ever since it has been there.

Everyone heard that I owned one of the medicine arrows and talked
about it. I would be at home when Hillside or the owner would visit me
and tell me to go to the Dakota in some region they had seen the night
before and to fetch such and such a horse. They would tell me they had
seen an arrow thrown and alighting in a certain place, and had heard a
rumbhng noise and the whinnying of a herd of horses. Thus they sent
me out. That is how they started. After a while they no longer sent me
out. Then after a while they said, "We see you are well posted, now go
out of your own accord." I was now to have visions of my own. I did
not see an arrow as they did, but a long species of grass. I would see the
stalk flying like an an-ow and follow it with my eyes till it alighted some-
where, then I would go thither. From now on everything depended on
myself. I had visions of different things. I made a little notched stick
about four inches long myself, because I had a vision to that effect.
If the enemy had stolen our horses and I put this on their tracks, they
would sleep too long or be otherwise delayed, so we would catch up if I
led the party.

1922.] Loivie, Religion of the Crow. 399

At the Old Agency one time the Piegan stole some of our horses.
All the young men were out, and I came late with the arrow. They were
glad to see me and wished me to take, the lead. I got to the tracks,
planted my stick there, and we did not have to go far. They had over-
slept. We got all our horses back, killed some, brought back the hair,
and none of us got hurt. When I got home I put this medicine back
into the bundle again. I did this two or three times.

When Dakota were sighted, young men would come to me with
caUcoes, pray to the arrow and say, 'T wish not to be hit and to come
back alive (hdmhi)." There came to be a big bundle of these cloth
offerings.

Once I went out in the dead of winter. When a considerable distance
out, I had a vision. I heard a voice say : "Keep going, when you get to a
certain land you will see a snake. This will be a sign that you are to
get horses and will rejoice on your way back." The other men laughed at
me because there are no snakes in the winter. About noon we came to a
little creek, and there was a snake there. Then they believed that what
I had said was true. My old comrade stayed with me, we changed
direction and brought back some horses.

The arrow in a vision forbids me to do certain things. It told me
not to throw anything and not to let anyone else throw anything where
the arrow is. It told me: "If that is done in your lodge, it will be the
same as throwing away some of your property." It forbade me to strike
the tipi harboring the arrow in order to knock off the snow. It said,
"If you want to reMove the snow, take a long willow and gently scrape
off the snow without hitting it." It forbade me to cook the fat above the
paunch or to throw ashes out of a tipi. "If you don't keep the rule, the
owner of the arrow will be blind."

Once I went on the warpath. The buffalo scared our horses away. I
took my little arrow and planted it in the horses' track. They heard a
horse whinnying and found a gray with a rope on it, wrapped round a
bush. It was my horse ; the others could not be found.

The owner came to me once and said: "You must have visions of
your own. If a young man should ask you for it, it is your place now to
make a bundle for him." I spoke to Hillside about this, but he would
not allow it. He said, "If it were not for me, you would not own it; I
gave it to you because you were my brother's comrade, otherwise I
should not have done so. Do not make it for anyone else. When you
have children, give it to them." My eldest daughter (Jim Carpenter's
wife) owns it now.

400 Anthropological Papers American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XXV,

The owner of the medicine originally got it (in a vision) from a
woman with black hair and white face, wearing a buckskin suit and a
string of beads round the breast.^

On a war party I found red plumes, and I put them into the bundle
with the feathers.

Before Hillside and I started on the warpath the owner would call
us in and brush us with one of the feathers from his arrow bundle. We
would not have to pay for this, but other young men who desired to be
brushed by him would have to paj^ a fee. When I got close to the
enemy's camp I would sing my song and open the bundle. Then it got
dark and cloudy so that we could hardly see one another. In most cases
the arrow would protect us, so the enemy could not see our tracks.

In the original vision there were four arrows: red, blue, green, black
(dark blue) . Of these four the white one was the most effective and its
owner would become a great chief. However, he was soon to be killed,
and for that reason people were afraid of owning it, and it was left out.
In singing the owners must not point the arrow toward themselves lest
they be hurt, but toward the enem3^ Through the arrow the Crow be-
came people again (i.e., after suffering reverses from other tribes).
Wlien we opened the bundle formerly it got windy and cloudy, but it is
not so now. Something must have changed. When there was a battle,
a virtuous young woman (virgin) would open it. More recently the
owner said, "Now you can have your wife and children open it. It does
not look well to have strangers do it."

One time when on a war party along the Yellowstone I had a vision
near Forsyth. "Go up where the arrow originated, and in one of the
cracks there you will see an eagle feather of the kind next to the foremost.
Take it out." I searched for it, found it, and took it on the warpath.
The people never saw it except when I returned from a successful party,
when I would expose it on a pole. But even then they could not see it
near enough to see just what it was like.

In battle young men tried to be the first ones to carry the bundle and
would give presents for being permitted to do so. These arrow-bearers
were not afraid of anything, for they knew they could not be hurt. They
had to pay for this privilege. Sometimes the owners themselves carried
their bundle; then they felt as if no battle were going on at all. The
owner would point the arrow at his associate-owners and sing, and then a
wind would come up.

'This is of course at variance with Hillside's account (p. 391).

1922.] Lowie, Religion of Crow. 401

In giving me the arrow the owner said, "When you go out on the
warpath, you'll see a white buffalo and kill it." It came true, and this
proved to me the truth of the medicine.

Before the Custer massacre another general (Ter^y?), named Three-
stars (r ge rawic), was helped by the Crow. Two young men both wished
to carry my arrow and had a dispute over it. I and Medicine-crow took
the lead in this fight on account of our medicines. When Three-stars
went away, Custer came. The Dakota tried to kill off all the Crow,
but on account of the arrow they could not do it. They lost plenty of
property and horses. Custer was unlucky; he was destroyed. The
Three-stars fight belongs to the arrow. It always protected me. Custer
heard of it.

Painted Tipis.

Painted tipis did not play the important part they did among other
Plains tribes. In 1907 on a short visit to the Northern Blackfoot of
Gleichen, Alberta, I saw a fair number of painted tipis pitched at the
time of their annual festivities; but though I have repeatedly visited
the Crow on like occasions I recall but a single painted tipi, which was
decorated with the figure of the Thunderbird. Nevertheless, there were
a number of painted tipis in the old days and their owners were esteemed
as medicinemen and took precedence in moving the camp. Enemies'
scalps were always taken to such tents and subsequently given to women
who had lost brothers in battle; sometimes they kept the lock for a while
and would then throw it away.

Painted tipis were of course revealed in visions. Returning from
his experience, the visionary would have some men gather, had the
buffalo-skin cover spread out and the paint lying about ready for use.
Then he would say, "I saw this when fasting on a mountain," and would
give a full description of his vision. He would close with some such
words as, 'T am painting this tent on behaK of the Crow. You will
fare well, horses and scalps will come into our camp from everywhere."

The most noted owner of a painted tipi recalled by Gray-bull was
White-lip. He chopped off a joint of one of his fingers and burnt it up
with a buffalo chip. He had a trance. When he regained consciousness,
he was in a tipi with two black stripes by the door and another stripe
in the center of the rear. Someone said, "Walk round, look, this is your
tent." They gave him a pipe. When he got home, he went on the war-
path and the Crow met five Dakota. White-hp asked his companions,
"Why did you let the Dakota escape*?" He pursued them on horseback,

402 Anthropological Papers American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XXV,

jumped off in front of one of them, shot him and took his gun. He shot
and killed a second man. The third fled but was also killed by him. He
did this very soon after his vision. No one ever achieved what he did, —
killing three enemies single-handed.

White-lip wore a necklace with plumes, hanging down; in the
center there was a red clam shell, which Gray-bull tliinks symbolized
the morningstar, possibly the sun or moon. He also wore a shell above
the point of attachment of his switch in the back. He had weasel-skin
trimmings in the back.

White-lip was leading the camp as chief. The people were on a
buffalo hunt and there was a strong wind blowing so as to throw the
scent to the game. White-lip pointed his pipe in all directions, drawing a
circle. The wind forthwith blew from the opposite direction. Plenty
of buffalo were killed. White-lip was never shot in battle. He lived to
be about 110 years of age; his skin would tear when he moved.

The manner of decorating the sacred tipis varied. Some had the
picture of a moon on them, sometimes the whole lodge was painted red
or with some other color according to the revelation.

No Crow, according to one informant, put up a lodge of twenty or
more buffalo hides unless he had dreamt to that effect. Otherwise, the
Indians believed, he or one of his close relatives would die.

Shield^.

Shields (minnatse) were sacred objects inasmuch as their decoration
was revealed in visions; plain shields for ordinary use were not con-
sidered medicine. The protective quaUty of the former type was
naturally atti'ibuted to the supernatural experience and men going into
an important battle desired to carry one of them. Consequently they
would approach the owner and ask for his shield, saying, "If I achieve
such and such a deed, I will give you a horse" (or some other property). If
successful, they would then fulfil their promise.

Shields were made from the hide of a buffalo and White-arm says
that the ventral-thoracic part was utilized. According to this in-
formant most shields were decorated on the rawhide itself, but my im-
pression is that in the majority of cases the painting appeared on the
buckskin cover.

In moving camp the owners would entrust their shields to their
wives, who fastened them on one side of the pommel while to the other
side was secured a stick about four feet long and wrapped with otter-
skin ; the cantle had a cylindrical bag attached on the left side and the

1922.] Lowie, Religion of the Crow. 403

spear-holder with erect spear or sabre on the right. If a man had two
wives and only one shield, they would sometimes quarrel as to who
should carry it, for the one doing so was regarded as the husband's
favorite. Usually the owner took no part in the dispute, letting the
women settle the matter between them, but sometimes he assigned it to
the one he loved more.

In going on the warpath the owner of a shield had it carried by a
young man, who took the lead. Whenever the party halted for smoking
or resting, the bearer would put the shield on some sagebrush, for it
must not touch the ground; further he was not allowed to carry any
weapons. When in sight of the enemy's camp, the captain owning a
shield took it himself, as was the custom with other medicines too.
Sometimes shields were taken from and by the enemy; such capture
was mentioned at dances in the recital of coups, though it was not
reckoned on a par with that of a gun. White-arm recollected the case of
Long-piegan, a Crow, taking a Dakota shield, but said the Piegan
Indians excelled all other tribes in getting into a hostile camp and stealing
shields or other medicines.

When a man was about to die, he would will his shield to his son or
otherwise to a younger brother. It was never inherited by a woman. If
the owner had made no disposition of it, a man he had adopted as his son
in selling him some medicine might mourn in conspicuous fashion and
subsequently announce, "I have done this for that shield." Then the
family of the deceased felt that he deserved to own it and gave it to him.
White-arm knew of no case where a man had been buried with his
shield, but my interpreter thought Ten-bear had been and Medicine-
crow told me he would under no conditions sell his shield at any price
since he wanted to be buried with it.

As already noted, no shield was supposed to touch the ground. A
shield-bearer carried his shield on the left arm and horsemen charging
the enemy did not pass on his left side, otherwise their horses would fall
down. In other respects the notions associated with shields varied.
When in my presence uncovering his shield, which had two covers,
Medicine-crow followed a procedure which may or may not have been
typical. He took a few live coals and burned ise for incense, then held
his shield above the fire and raised it a little distance, lowered it and
raised it a little higher than before, and repeated this performance till
the fourth time, when he raised the shield high above his head. Then he
removed the buckskin covers.

404 Anthropological Papers American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XXV,

A magnificent collection of Crow shields was made by Dr. G. A.
Dorsey and Mr. S. C. Simms on behalf of the Field Museum in Chicago
and is housed in that institution. I do not know what notes were secured
in connection with these specimens. Owing to these previous purchases
the number remaining on the Reservation was very small and since their
owners either declined to sell at all or demanded extravagant prices I
was able to acquire only two complete shields (Fig. 3 and 4) and two shield
covers, (Fig. 5) but was permitted to view one or two others. Fortu-
nately my informants were able to give some data about other shields
they had seen or heard about, and below I give all the information
secured.

Medicine-crow's shield was decorated on the cover with a series of
parallel vertical lines resting on a horizontal hne; these were said to
symbolize clouds. Below the horizontal hne there were two triangles
with long zigzag appendages; the triangles represent Buffalo-above's
eyes, the zigzags his breath. According to another note, the buffalo is
represented as urinating, and the black lines symbohzed the glancing off
of bullets. On the shield there were also some buffalo tracks. Zigzag
ornamentation is rather common on the shields exhibited in Chicago;
for example, in two cases I noted that the decorative surface was tri-
partite, the central third being occupied by a number of parallel zig-
zags, while above and below were symmetrical series of parallel lines.
To the middle of Medicine-crow's cover there was attached some horse-
hair representing a scalp. At the top of the cover there was a bunch of
mountain-grouse feathers, below an eagle feather was hanging.

White-arm and Grandmother' s-knife spoke of a type of shield painted
yellow, decorated with a buffalo representation in the middle and with
weasel tracks; to the upper edge was tied a yellow weasel. There
were several of these shields owned by men of the xuxkaraxtse clan.

Another shield, also painted yellow all over, was decorated with
rabbit tracks. The owner's wife had to take care of it. As soon as the
sun rose, she placed it toward the east and as the sun moved she changed
its position westward, wrapping it up at sunset. Owners of this type of
shield were not allowed to eat any kind of kidney and did not permit
others to bring kidneys into their lodge. Shows-a-fish inherited one of
these shields.

Another type, greatly admired by White-arm, was covered with a
light layer of red paint and streaked in spots by a heavier appHcation of
the same paint. Two-bear's ears were represented, and attache i to
each was a six-inch cord tipped with a plume. The streaks represented

Fig. 1.

Fig. 3

Fig. 5.

Fig. 3 (50.1-3894O). Magpie's Shield.

Fig. 4 f50.1-3895a). Wolf-lies-down's Shield.

Fig. 5 a(50-6932), 6 (50.1-3896). Shield Covers.

405

406 Anthropological Papers American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XXV,

clouds. This shield was owned by Biiatac (Coyote). In the rear of the
lodge where it was kept people were prohibited to put any moccasins
for fear of some stroke of misfortune.

Another shield said in 1916 to be kept in Sheridan, Wyoming, had a
buckskin cover painted with the figure of a buffalo, over which was tied
a buffalo tail. The painted cover was in turn enclosed in a second cover.
A shield in the possession of the Museum before my purchase seems to
belong to the same category (Fig. 6).

Fig. 6 (50-57106). Buffalo-hide Shield.

One of the most noted shields because of the fame it brought its
owners was called minnatse dpewac-bice, shield having a short intestine.
It was painted white all over, except for a red spiral, which represented
the intestine.

A shield so highly prized that it was never exposed in sham battles
and accordingly never seen by White-arm is or was owned by Two-white-
birds of Pryor. It was abundantly ornamented with feathers and other
decoration. UnHke other shields, it was not tied to a woman's saddle in
traveling but carried on her back.

1922.] Lowie, Religion of the Croir. 407

One shield was known as minnats i'tsifie hawdtec, shield supported
on only one pole. White-arm thought it had a bear painted on it and
might be identical with Flat-head-woman's shield.

Bull-weasel's mother was said to own a shield covered with white
paint and having real bear's ears tied to the middle; between the ears
was the tail of a sage-hen and at the bottom there was some beadwork.
This shield is called minnats tsVisg'isewice, shield having a big sage-hen.

A shield known as minnats i'g'e sd'pudwice, shield with the Dipper,
was painted all over with a hght yellow. The seven stars were put on at
distances of from five to six inches from one another.

White-arm liimself made a shield, though a small one, which he had
seen before becoming Christianized. He cut four horsetracks on one leg
and three on the other, also cutting his arms and dragging horses' heads.
He placed the cut flesh on buffalo chips as an offering to the Sun. The
cuts on his arm represented coups he was paying for, the dragging of the
skulls any gift that might be made. My informant did not describe
what decoration was on his shield.

Each shield had distinctive taboos. In some instances no person
was permitted to borrow coals from the owner's fire; in others, visitors
to his lodge were obUged to sit down immediately on entering; still other
shield-owners insisted that no one must strike their tipi with any object.

Charges-camp was said to have owned a shield decorated with the
figure of a man in black; this man was shown with open mouth, exhibit-
ing teeth resembhng a dog's. Once the Flathead stole Charges-camp's
horses and also his shield. Another Crow then dreamt of it and made it,
my informant's brother paid the visionary for it and my informant in-
herited it from his brother.

I saw a shield with several buckskin covers, of which the outermost
was decorated with parallel vertical hues in red. Across the center of
the shield from top to bottom and beyond it there was an otterskin ; on
each side there was a bunch of feathers, which was tucked under the skin
in wrapping up the shield.

Tattooed-face was said to own a shield painted all over with a light
red color and with a decoration resembhng a buffalo's guts. The owner's
horse was never shot in battle.

Grandmother's-knife told me of a shield owned by a chief named
Rotten-belly (era-piidc). A man named Hanging-foot had separated
from the main camp and he and all his male followers were killed by the
Cheyenne, who captured the women and children.^ Some of the captives

>Cf. this volume, 185.

408 Anthropological Papers American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XXV,

escaped to the main camp and offered the pipe to the two chiefs, Red-
plume-on-the-forehead and Rotten-belty, in order to have them under-
take an expedition to revenge the death of their kinsfolk. Rotten-belly
smoked the pipe and bade the young men get ready. The military
societies got together and danced in the afternoon. Rotten-belly asked
the warriors to get ready early in the morning and saddle their horses.
They did so and proceeded to the top of a hill. There he ordered them to
dismount and gather buffalo chips, which were then piled up. The sun
had just risen. Rotten-belly said, 'Til sing and walk upon this pile of
chips and it will stay exactly as it is. When I get up on top of the chips,
I'll sing again. Then Til loll my shield, and if the painted side falls next
to the ground, we'll turn l)ack. If the other side falls to the ground, you
must all cheer.'' The picture on the shield was that of a man in black
with his ears cUsproportionately large. Rotten-belly sang and walked
up the pile of chips with his shield in his hands. He made the painted
side face toward the sun and began to sing. When done, he threw the
shield, which rolled away and fell with the painted side up. All the men
cheeied. He descended from the pile, picked up the shield and sang a
praise song. He said, "Don't kill any birds on this trip." They set out.
Young birds began to fly and one flew over a woman. She struck it with
her hand and it fell to the ground; she picked it up, but it died. They
reached the enemy's camp and attacked them, kilUng many of the enemy.
Only one Crow was killed, — a brother of the woman who struck the bird.
The shield was noted for its medicine power and was in constant use until
reservation times. It ought to be at Pryor.

In 1910 I was approached by Yellow-brow, who offered to drive me
to his house and sell some valuable specimens. I accompanied him and
found that he and his father Magpie really had a veiitable treasure-trove
of ethnographically interesting material. I noticed a shield and wanted
to see it, but Yellow-hrow at first refused to unwrap it, saying that he
had no desire to sell it. After I had bought a number of medicine ob-
jects, he relented in response to my importunity so far as to uncover it,
still insisting that he would not sell it. When I saw the shield, I made
him an offer and after considerable parleying he agreed to sell it for $ 75.
In driving me back with my acquisitions. Yellow-brow handed the
shield to his father, who clasped it in his arms and with great display of
emotion recited a prayer to it. My interpreter, Jim Carpenter, told me
that if any accident should befall the seller, the Indians would asciibe
it to his seUing the shield. The shield (Fig. 3) has a buckskin cover
decorated with two vertical zigzag lines, one on each side ; to the center

1922.

Lowie, Religion of the Crow. -409

is attached a whistle and on each side of it a 3'ellow bird. Several years
after the purchase a favorable opportunity presented itself for inter-
vicwino; Yellow-brow as to the history of the shield and his narrative
follows; unfortunately it does not explain the ornamejitation.

The Tale of Magpie's Shield. Dries-his-fur was leader of a war
party. Humped-wolf , then about eighteen years of age, accompanied
them. When they had gone a great distance, they were attacked by the
enemy, who drove them out of their trenches and killed many of the
Crow in the night. Humped-wolf was shot through the legs above his
knees, but still went along with the survivors. That night he ran off.
He had no clothes and it was snowing; he thought he was going to die.
Then he came to a big black object, — a dead buffalo. When he touched
it, it was not dry. He went inside, where it was warm. He stayed there for
a while and was just about to go to sleep, when the buffalo snorted. He
did not know what it was and was afraid. He heard something coming.
Someone called him, "Full-inouth-l)uffalo- ((.s1pkaricti-f>ric), come."
He did not know who it was but there was daylight and he rose and went
towards the sound. "What are you woriying about?" "I was shot by the
Dakota, that is why I am worrying." The visitant opened his mouth.
"You shall be the same as myself." He had no teeth. "You cannot die
until then (when you have no more teeth). That is the first thing I will
give you. Face towards the east and look!" It was a buffalo bull with
anotlicr behind him; the first changed into a man, the second into a bay
hoise. Ihunped-wolf noticed what the buffalo-man was wearing.
He wore a horned bonnet with a short streamer decorated witli (>agle
feathers, a calfskin shirt with the hair on it, sleeve-holders of buffalo
tail, a necklace of l)uffalo horns between dewclaws. In his hand he held
a buffalo tail mounted on a pointed stick and he was carrying the shield
I gave you (K. H. L.) He was painted white from his nose downward
and all over his body. His horse was also painted white below the eyes,
from the knees down, and about the middle of his tail; a plume was tied
to the horse's forehead. This man came up to Humped-wolf and said,
"I have made you go on the warpath and come where you were and go
inside the buffalo. Look towards the place where you came from."
When he looked, he saw men lined up behind him and all dressed like the
l)uffalo-man. There were also dead people lying all about with guns,
bows, and tomahawks. "Look to the west." There, too, he saw dead
people with guns and bows. The buffalo-man spoke to Full-mouth-
buffalo (this being thenceforth Humped-wolf 's name) as follows: "Other
medicines (l(» not last. Give this to vour children and grandchildren and

410 Anthropological Papers American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XXV,

SO on till there shall be no more fighting. I have given you this medicine.
That plume is the body of your horse (meaning that it could not be
shot) . When a person is shot, he is considered a man. I have placed you
among the Crow. Henceforth you shall not be driven back by the enemy.
I have given you everything that makes a man. This is all. Give the
medicine only to your brothers (dakupe) and your children {darake).'"

After his vision Humped-wolf went homeward. It was still snowing
but he no longer suffered from the cold. About dayhght he saw a person
coming up in front of him. He^ told Humped-wolf that he had forgotten
something and began to sing. Hmnped-wolf saw another person coming,
whom he recognized as a Dakota. The first man sang against the
Dakota, who was armed with bow and arrow, a knife, and a tomahawk
at his belt. When he had done singing, he went towards the Dakota and
held his shield in front of him. The Dakota was ready to shoot his arrows
and let one fly. It struck the shield, broke, and fell to the ground. He
dropped his bow and arrows, took his tomahawk, came up to the Crow,
and struck at the edge of the shield. His tomahawk broke. He took out
his knife. The shield-bearer stepped back, then started towards him
again. When the Dakota made a motion as if to stab him, he threw the
shield in front of him, and the knife touching the shield was broken.
Then the Crow jumped aside, stabbed the enemy's breast with a lance,
and killed him. Then Hmnped-wolf looked and saw that it was a
coyote. "You shall be the same," said the visitant.

Humped-wolf went toward his camp. The rest of the survivors
of his war party had returned to camp and told the Crow that Humped-
wolf had been shot in the leg and left behind. The people mourned for
him. When he arrived, he summoned all the older men to his tipi and
told them his vision. He described it and told them he liked it. "Make
it," they said. One of them asked, "Have you any songs (dicu-wici)V'
"Yes." "Sing." He sang the following : —

bap" hiri at bicit, bik' barawarawik'. aruut

Whenever there is any trouble, I shall not die but get through. Arrows

ahii'ta, bowik". barase batsek'.

many though there be, I shall arrive. My heart is manly.

The man who asked for the songs had no faith in Humped-wolf 's vision
and said, "You had better look for safety."

Humped-wolf made what he had seen. Riding a dark bay horse, he
accompanied a war party. On the day they set out from camp the
enemy attacked them. Making the rest of the company lie in a coulee,

'This is the visitant.

1922.] Lowie, Religion of the Croiv. 411

he alone fought the enemy and killed several of them. He was shot by
the enemy, so were some of those who hid. The Dakota ceased fighting
and thus spoke to Humped- wolf : "Go home, you are no good, have your
will of the women and rejoice." They meant that he was a man. They
did not pursue the Crow, who came back with none of them slain. Some
of the enemy had been killed and scalped. Then the Crow liked this
man and the whole camp knew about him. Whenever he went with a
war party, the enemy always attacked them. He always fought alone
and was always shot, but sometimes some of the party were killed in-
cidentally. When the Crow discovered that parties he accompanied
were attacked by the enenw, captains did not like him to go along. They
recollected his song and said, ''He was to fight, he is always giving
trouble."

A man was setting out as captain for the first time. He had many
brothers; they were not good people but were always looking for a fight.
When Humped- wolf tried to accompany them as before, they turned back,
saying he was no good. When the}^ had been out four days, he overtook
them, thinking they would not turn back after having traveled for four
days. They said, "What are you coming for? You are no good. We
are not very good captains, we are just going to try. Turn back, or we
shall beat you. We give you only this choice : turn back, or if you don't
we shall beat you." They went on. He asked them to beat him once
and he would go with them. All surrounded him and beat him till one
of the party who was not a brother of the captain asked them to desist.
Humped- wolf was covered with blood. He rose to a sitting posture and
said, "If you achieve something good, I'll be in it; if you are all-killed,
I too shall be killed." They bade him turn back lest they kill him and
went on.

Humped-wolf sat there, thinking of the man who had adopted him,
though his medicine was worthless, and cried, "If it had not been for
my medicine, I should have gone with the party." After they were all
out of sight, he considered whether to turn back or follow the party, not
knowing what to do. While he was sitting there crying, he heard hooting
and whooping and someone was saying, "Humped-wolf is nearby."
The party ran towards him and said, "The enemy came and drove us
back."' He said, "You did not like me. I could have joined the enemy,
but because I am a Crow I did not do it." He put up his blanket in a
heap and ran around. He bade the war party get behind him. The
enemy surrounded him. They fought from early in the morning till
sunset. He made gestures to the Dakota. "Bring me some water; I

412 Anthropological Papers American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XXV,

am very thirsty. If you don't do it, I'll go for water myseK and follow
you to your main camp, fighting you all summer until winter." The
Dakota brought some water and left it at a distance for him to take it.
They told him to go home, that he was no good and should have his will
of women. "Quam maxuiie penem insere," aiunt. They returned to
the rest of the party, who had hidden in a coulee. They now hked him
and treated him well. He was shot all over and was not f eeUng very well ;
some of his teeth had been knocked out. They got to a river on the way
home. His wounds smarted. The captain asked, "Why did you turn
back?" "My leg smarts, that is why." The captain told the warriors
to carry him across the water. He refused to be carried. "We'll do it
nevertheless." He remembered the time they had beaten him and asked
the captain, "How many times did you strike me?" "I did not count,
but it was man}^ times." "About how many?" "About ten times."
There were large stones in the creek and the water was flowing very
swiftly. He asked the captain to carry him across, and the captain alone
lifted him on his back. When he got to the middle of the creek, the water
was almost up to his waist. He slipped on a stone, fell, and both floated
downstream. There was a whirlpool just below and they could not get
out, but the captain was pulled out by his brothers; they left Humped-
wolf in there and proceeded homeward. He had been shot in the arms,
so he could not swim but climbed a log and floated on it till night,
crying continually. About dawn he saw a black object approaching. He
wished it Avere an enemy coming to kill him. It was singing medicine
songs. It said, "Child, I am coming to see you, we'll do it again." It
was the man he had seen coming from the east in his vision. "I made a
mistake," said the visitant. "I asked you before why you were grieving;
you answered that you had been chased and shot by the enemy. That is
what I have given you, that they should never chase you. The Dakota
have bidden you go home and have your will of the women, they always
bade you go to camp. Henceforth give no help to war parties, help the
camp. The Dakota and Cheyenne have driven you away and captured
your people." He was still floating on the log. "Get up, come." He
thought to himself, "How can I rise and walk?" "Get up and come."
He made an effort to rise and the water was hard, so he stood up. He
walked on it and got to this man. He told him to go home. "Make this
medicine for your children and brothers, your having it alone is bad."
Humped-wolf proceeded without pains of any sort. The rest of the party
had returned and reported him drowned. The people had been mourning
for him. Henceforth he stayed in camp. He must have been about forty

1922.] Lowie, Religion oj the Crow. 413

years of age then and had owned the. medicine for a long time and
achieved great deeds. This was about 173 or 174 years ago {sic\) The
people were staying between Powder River and the site of Colmnbus,
Montana.

Humped-wolf had three sons, and his two sisters had two sons each.
Early one morning he told his wife to take everything out of his tipi.
He sent for his four nephews (itsuke, younger brothers or a man's sister's
sons^), who sat down beside him, while his three sons were on the opposite
side. To the one next to him Humped-wolf said, "I'll give you a name,—
White-young-buffalo (t^lpkaricta-tsidc)." To the next one he said, 'T\\
name you Full-mouth-buffalo.'' To the third he said, "I'll call you Bull-
always-living (tsirup-daicic)." To the fourth he said, "I'll call you
"Buffalo-walks-to-the-river." Of his sons he named the first Colored-
fur, referring to the yellowish or reddish color some calves are born with;
the second, Buffalo-with-high-withers ; the third. Small-backed-bull.
He asked them all whether they were satisfied with their names and they
said, "Yes." "Don't go out on war parties. The rest of the Crow are
men; they can go out and look out for themselves. Look after the
children and women in camp. The camp has been attacked, and women
and children have been captured ])y the enemy. Wlien you are there,
this will happen no more." Then he told them all about his medicine
and told them to go out and seek some medicine of their own.

They went out. The first nephew was looking for something on a
hill at the junction of the Rotten Grass and the Bighorn. He did not get
what his uncle had wanted. He reported as follows : "A jack-rabbit came
to me and told me not to take the medicine because you have always
been shot. He said to me, "You shall be a chief without trouble; old
people are i:)oor; you shall grow up and die without trouble or sorrow."
Humped-wolf replied, "You have erred. A person wants to get enough of
life. I will not make this medicine for you." The second nephew re-
ported: "I did not get anything. While I was seeking medicine, a bob-
cat and two different kinds of hawk came to me. They said, 'The animal
that gave him the medicine is heavj^ we are more powerful, don't take its
medicine. You will be liked by all the Crow and shall die without trouble
or sorrow. Old age is bad, old people have no teeth or eyes.' I do not
want your medicine." Humped-wolf answered, "Not all the people on
this earth desire to die forthwith." The third nephew reported as fol-
lows: "While I was seeking a vision, a hawk came to me on a cliff and

iLowie, this series, vol. 21, 60.

414 Anthropological Papers American Museum of N'alural History. [Vol. XXV,

said, 'I'll make 3'OU help your people. The owner of the medicine you
are about to take has always been shot. Old age is not good. He has had
to suffer a great deal of trouble. When you are shot, your body shall not
be penetrated. You shall do whatever you please in battle.' " Humped-
wolf spoke to his three nephews thus: "I wanted to live with you a long
time, but you will not."

The fourth nephew, Full-mouth-buffalo, said that he had brought
the medicine: "I am like (?) the rest of these, but'have a different way.
I don't know what it is, but I saw a vision and was told to fight. It was
the sacred Tobacco (i'tsi'tsid). On the return trip I was caught by a bear.
He lifted me up so that I could see all the earth. He made me touch his
teeth; he had none at all. 'You may jump among high cliffs or do what
you please,' said he, 'you cannot die. When you have no more teeth and
all 3'our hair is white, you shall fall asleep without awaking. You'll
have a good death, so don't be afraid of anything. When we are in
trouble, that is what makes men of us.' " Humped-wolf replied: "You
have done well. Those three are like the plants. They will grow up a
while and then wdther. Had I been in their place, I should have taken
the medicine you obtained and also the one I am about to give you."
His three sons all brought what he had asked them to bring. He made
the medicine for them. The first three nephews did not get either Full-
mouth's or Humped-wolf 's medicine, but only what they had themselves
seen.

When Humped-wolf had made the medicine for his three sons and
the last of his nephews, he bade them sit down. The camp had separated
into distinct bands in the wintertime. He said, "When the whole camp is
engaged in a fight, help the tribe and keep the enemy from taking cap-
tives." "Yes, we'll do this." "I am slow (ahdkdtdk), I am heavy; no
matter what happens, I have no place to run to. When you wish to flee,
remember this and you'll remain strong and brave." "Yes," they
answered. "When all the people are hungry and you bring buffalo, give
meat to the poor. Look out and scout for the camp, look for buffalo,
move the camp to where there are buffalo. Ti-eat your people well, die
for them. Be men for your people, don't fight with them. If they dis-
pute with you, don't mind it, treat them well. If they strike you, do
not hit them back. Have you heard what I said?" "Yes."

One of the bands that had separated was ahnost completely de-
stroyed by the enemy. All the Crow got together in a camp circle.
Full-mouth's father had two wives, and each of thefn had a son with a
month's difference in their ages. These boys had grown up and loved

1922.

Lowie, Religion of the Crow. 415

each other. Thus there was an eighth man to go out. This brother of
Full-mouth was called Wants-to-die (dee), though his real name was
Owl-head. Full-mouth had a horse nicknamed Face-on-both-sides,
which name was subsequently transferred to himself. Bull-always-
hving frequently changed the painting on his face, for which reason he
was called Plays- with-his-f ace. Buffalo-walks-to-the-river, while look-
ing for some woman, passed a bevy and looked for a woman where there
were none; hence he was called Passes-the-woman.

The enemy had killed a man and his child; the mother was alive.
Wants-to-die and Face-on-both-sides were camping in the middle of the
circle. The Crow liked these two, knowing that they could get help
from them; that is. why they were camped in the center. The mourning
woman went round the camp crying and saying, "The Dakota have
killed my husband and child, who is going to kill one of them for me?"
After a while she got to the two central lodges and walked round them.
"Who is going to kill a Dakota for me? If no one will kill one, Fll be
miserable." She went to Face-on-both-sides' lodge, saying, "You have a
body and you are still here. I wish you would kill a Dakota for me, no
one else can kill one, you are the only one who can do it." She went and
pressed his head, as was the custom then. His father said, "You have
done wrong, you are going to make my son die. You ought to have stayed
outside waiUng." She went outside. Face-on-both-sides said to his
father, "Don't worry. I shall not die during your lifetime. I'll die as a
very old man, don't worry about me." He called Wants-to-die, who was
in the next tent. "At this very moment we have a good thing. There are
plenty of men but she has come to us, and it is well. Bring six others,
bring the old man (Humped-wolf) also." The old woman prepared good
food for the visitors. "Why have you sent for us?" asked the old man.
"You told us not to go on war parties, but a woman has asked us to kill
one of the Dakota. Will you let us go?" "How are you going to kill
Dakota without going anywhere? I told you to help the children and
women. A child has been killed, a woman has asked you for help, that is
why I want you to help." The Dakota camp was close, and it was large.
Of the other tribes they were not afraid. Face-on-both-sides said to
Humped-wolf, "We'll start this evening, I'll go with you." It was in
the morning. "Go home now and get your horses, we'll go with any-
one who wants to join. Go out and herald that we are going to sing
(actd-wawardxbok')."^ The old man heralded. Face-on-both-sides

'A special kind of singing is referred to.

416 Anthropological Papers American Mtiseum of Natural History. [Vol. XXV,

was very anxious, he did not eat. He sent for the old man, who entered
his tipi. "What is the matter, Face-on-both-sides?" "I feel like crying,
yet I also feel Hke singing Big Dog and medicine songs." "Your medicine
is anxious too, that is why." "Paint me up." He did so, also painting
his horse. Face-on-both-sides used all the medicine he had as he was
riding his horse. He cried, "A woman and children, who are timid,
have been killed by the Dakota, who have captured some. They alone
want to be men; they do not consider us, the Crow, men. Sun, if I die to-
day, it will be well. Whenever they have killed children and women, I
always grieve. If I die for my people, it will be -well." He went round
the circle and returned to his own tipi. Everyone cried as he went round
crying. He went round again, singing the Big Dog songs. The women
cheered him. He got back to his own tipi, then went round again, sing-
ing the medicine songs. "There is only one man, Face-on-both-sides;
I am he. I am among the Crow. There is none among the Dakota. I
am your helper. Remember me when you have a hard time. Tomorrow
I'll kill an enemy, from now on I'll keep on kilUng them." When he
got back to his tipi, all his brothers and the old man were there. The old
man said, "This is what I have brought you up for, for the time when
the Crow tribe would come to you for aid."

That night they sang and then set out. A great many went along,
there must have been about a thousand. They traveled on till they
saw the Dakota camp. They stayed there all night. A Dakota captive
escaped from the Crow to the Dakota camp and warned them, so no
Dakota ventured out. The following day the old man spoke as follows :
"This is a fine day. Your mother must have been waiting for you,
thinking you were going to bring a Dakota scalp. When a woman gives
birth, it takes her a long time and she does not know whether she will
live or not. You have it easy, the camp is right there. Mount your
horses and go, there is nothing to hold you back. When you get thei'e,
you will either be killed or will kill an enem}^ Let me know how your
heart is (what you think)." Face-on-both-sides rose and said: "My
people, I am going to speak. Listen to me. Now you are miserable, you
are weak. Go home and wait for me on a high hill this side of the Crow
camp. When you have been gone a long time, then I'll kill an enemy;
otherwise the enemy might overtake you too." They did what he told
them to do. Then he spoke to the old man: "Where are your nephews
and your sons today? To all of us you spoke, where are the rest? Have
they heard or not? You ought to have spoken to me alone that time,
there was no use speaking to the others. This is all." Wants-to-die

1922.] Lowie, Religion oj the Crow. 417

said, "I am going to speak; listen. I heard what this old man said when
he spoke to his nephews and sons. He wanted to make men of his
nephews and sons. I am going to excel them. Let us all mount our
horses. When I am old, I shall die. I will die at any time ; I want to find
out how it is. It is hke going up over a divide." He sang this song: —
bak'6tsi"te awdxe awcrak; baxaria kawa+uk'. batsirireta.

Eternal (are) the heavens and the earth; old people are bad. ' Do not be afraid.

All mounted their horses. One man named Tears-the-tipi said,
"They are not the only men, I am a man too, I'll be the one to kill an
enemy." The old man answered, "Thanks, you are doing well. I was
wishing that some of the other men might help my nephews and sons.
You have done it and I want you to keep it up." All, including this man,
stood in hne and Humpcd-wolf behind. The bulk of the people had
departed long ago. The old man said, 'Tull-mouth,! what you have
shown me I will do toda3^ Wherever you are, you will know. Give
your power to Face-on-both-sides, I want him to get through in safety.
I will go, I am old and shall be tired." Then he left them. They bade
him go fastei-; they were going to kill the enem^^ when he had gone far
away.

When he had departed. Young-white-buffalo proposed a plan.
"When we kill, do not take a scalp. They won't believe us, they'll
think we did not kill anj'one if they see no scalp. The one who scalps
shall be the first to strike. If we only strike the Dakota, we shall not
have it."- "All right," they said, "you have a good plan." They
mounted and set out towards the camp. There weie nine of them. A
coulee extended to the camp. They proceeded without halting till
Tears-the-tipi bade them stop. "I thought j^ou were going to kill. If
you act as now, they will chase you and kill you all. I don't want to be
in it." "We'll go right into the camp." Tears-the-tipi said he would
turn back. "You may go." He turned and went. Near the camp he
halted r-nd sang his medicine song. The coulee ran through the camp.
They went right up to the edge of the camp. There on top of the bank a
woman was dressing a hide. Face-on-both-sides said, "No one has
left the camp, so we'll kill that one." Plays- with-his-f ace said, "You are
no persons, I'll be the one to scalp." Passes-the-woman answered, "You
are not of much account, I'll be the one to scalp." Face-on-both-sides
said, "Thank you. I thought I should be the one to scalp, I did not know
you two were." When 300 yards mthin camp, they saw a man coming

'This refers to his visitant.

^This paragraph is obscurely worded.

418 Anthropological Papers American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XXV,

out wearing a blanket. They said, ''There is a man coming, we'll kill
him." He went some distance to ease himself. The eight men ran
towards him. He rose and started back to camp without cleaning him-
seK. At the door of his tipi they were upon him, but instead of entering
he went toward the center of the circle. They shot and killed him and
fell upon him. The Dakota had been expecting the Crow and were
ah'eady shooting "at them. Plays-with-his-face scalped the man, his
companions ran away, and his horse with them. Thus he was left all
alone in the camp circle. Everything looked high to him, and it seemed
to him as though he were standing in a hollow. He did not know whether
he was walking or running, but followed in the direction of his friends.
The fugitives saw his horse and looking back saw him alone in the
center of the hostile camp with the enemy surrounding hun and shooting
at him.

Wants-to-die caught Plays-with-his-face's horse and took it to huu.
He passed him and threw him the reins so that they hung over his
shoulder. All this time the enemy were shooting at him. He seized the
reins and jumped on the horse. They ran through the camp. The
Dakota were in pursuit. When they got out of the camp they turned
and drove the enemy back, then they ran back. There were two parallel
coulees. They ran along one, then turned off to the other and went in the
reverse direction, so that the enemy were going the opposite way. The
Crow said, "They have killed a child, so we'll kill one of their children."
"All right." They ran into camp. A boy was running from one lodge to
another. Wants-to-die struck him in the temple with an ax and Plays-
with-his-face dismounted and scalped him; then they fled. They gal-
loped till night. Wlien they returned to the rest of their party, these said,
"We thought you had been killed by this time and were going to mourn."
The old man rejoiced and sang praise songs. The next morning they
returned to the Crow camp.

Thereafter the Crow were never driven back by the Dakota, since
that medicine was with them, but they repelled the Dakota. These men
each had one shield of the same kind, but those who had visions of their
own dressed a Uttle differently.

Various Medicine Objects.
Though sacred objects were almost uniformly derived from revela-
tions ultimately, many individuals owned medicines which they had
merely bought from the original visionary or even second-hand from
another purchaser. When a person saw another man prospering on the

1922.

Lowie, Religion of the Crow.

419

acquisition of some medicine, he would be tempted to acquire the
medicine also in order to share the owner's success. In such cases the
visionary made copies for the buyers to the number of four; with the
fourth replica he lost his property rights. Below I enumerate a miscel-
lany of medicines concerning some of which no detailed information was
obtained, but which serve to suggest the total range of relevant ideas.

In 1910 I bought a 'big weasel' {u'te
isdte) medicine from a Pryor Indian. It
consisted of a weaselskin stuffed with
buffalo hair (Fig. 7). The seller told me
that it had once been owned by a famous
warrior, who would unwrap it when on an
expedition, smoke it with incense, and
hold it toward the hostile camp.

Some men tied both ears and the tail
of a jack-rabbit to the back of their head
when going to fight and also put green
paint on their face from the lower lip
down to the chin. Charges-camp had
nothing to tie to his l>ody in battle, but
regarded the dog as his medicine and
would sing dog songs when fighting.
Lone-pine had a stuffed white-headed
eagle for his war medicine; attached to
it and worn round the neck was a whistle
without a hole but which the owner was
able to blow in making medicine. Where-
the-sun-sits (ax'ace-arawatsic) used a
stuffed magpie with iron eyes and horse-
hair in the beak to take the lead in war. Another man, who had had a
vision of a gun, would smoke incense at the end of the gun, point it and
say, "I should hke you to hit the enemy and break his backbone or
head." When he struck an enemy, he would break liis spine. Dung-
face used a conmion stick for his war medicine and was a successful
warrior; the stick was called fpace (marrow-pumper?). Another
captain used a 7natsapu9te (birch?) stick with five or six prongs at the
top, each tipped with magpie tails and decorated wdth red plumes at the
bottom. UnHke other medicines, this one was never wrapped up but
kept exposed.

Fig. 7 (50.1-3995). W.ir Medicine.

420 Anthropological Papers American Mnseum of Natural History. [Vol. XXV,

Bull-all-the-time received various medicines from an old shaman in-
cluding a stuffed chicken-hawk (ba-\-Vpuctsh) and a hoop {mnxe) wrapped
with otterskin and decorated with eagle feathers. My informant used
the hoop in war with great success. He accompanied General Miles and
destroyed a whole Shoshoni camp, killed two Dakota on his next venture,
stole horses from the Flathead on another occasion, and later recovered
horses and saddles from thieving Dakota,— all through the medicines
received. When he destroyed the enemy's camp, Bull-all-the-time pre-
sented the shaman with two horse?; when he came home empty-handed,
he did not give him anything.

Bull-tongue showed me his war medicine consisting of one male and
one female hawk (isd'tsise). He tied the male to his own head, and the
female to some other person's in battle; the wearer would take a gun
and strike a coup. This medicine was made for my informant by his
father-in-law. Bull-tongue regards the female as more sacred because
he sees it in dreams showing him the next winter or some other season.
He does not really see the bird in his dreams, yet he feels that it is the
female, not the male, that shows him the next season.

A visionary once made a coyote medicine for Gray-bull and pro-
phesied what he would do against the enemy, e.g., "You will meet an
enemy in such and such a place and kill him," or he might describe the
kind of horse my informant would capture. All his predictions came
true. Another medicine secured by my informant consisted of a tooth
from the skull of White-cub, the greatest of Crow shamans, who had
been killed. One of his teeth was kept for medicine and Gray-bull got
it. Whenever he went out with it. White-cub would always speak to
him so that he was afraid of it. He always advised Gray-bull what to do.
Soon after getting the tooth, my informant went on an expedition and
put it over his bed. It made a noise, saying several times, '4 hey are
coming!" The other members of the party were terrified and ran into a
little shelter. They asked, "What is the matter? We heard your medi-
cine speaking." Gray-bull was the only one who understood about it and
said that about dawn a man would come close to their resting-place, he
did not know whether a Crow or an enemy. At dawn a Dakota was seen
near by and driven off, Gray-bull capturing his horse and all his belong-
ings. A number of Crow horses had been stolen by Dakota, and these
were recovered. Gray-bull used his medicine on four expeditions.

A maternal uncle of Gray-bull's gave him a bird tail to be tied to
his head when fighting; attached to the tail was the head of a bird and
a piece of beaded buckskin was sewed to it. Gray-bull paid a horse

1922.] Lowie, Religion of the Crow. 421

and other property for it. The same kinsman gave him a necklace con-
sisting of beads and bird claws. This was supposed to be connected
with the Moon, and subsequently Gray-bull had a dream in which the
Moon appeared and gave him a song (p. 321). His uncle had not given
him a song with the necklace because he himself had not had a vision of
the Moon. Gray-bull was a young man and a scout at the time of this
experience. It happened sometimes that a man would dream about a
medicine after receiving it; sometimes men would take a medicine
after acquiring it and fast with it, so as to get a revelation. For this
medicine Gray-bull did not pay anything.

A crescent-shaped brass breast ornament, though apparently also
connected with the Moon and received from the same uncle, is regarded
as a distinct medicine. Gray-bull lost the original and made three
copies. It did not matter since the Moon knew him. He was the third
man to own this medicine. Old-crow had a brass full-moon for his medi-
cine; when he went out as captain, he would dream the position of the
enemy but did not see the Moon herself.

Several informants mentioned a war medicine carried on the back
that was called irid, after the dart used in the hoop game (batdk' isud) . It
was wrapped in black cloth, had feathers at the end, and lacked the white
clay painted at intervals on the trid used in playing the game. White-
arm described it as a stick of some wood resembhng the masdpudte
and about three feet long. At the center was a sea-shell {maxtixe) orna-
ment; between it and either tip there was this succession of decorative
appendages: red plumes (nia-\-6ce), magpie tail feathers, red plmnes, and
at the end a weaselskin fringe.

According to White-arm thistrid was discovered by Long-otter when
he was mourning the death of a daughter on a peak on the other side of
Bozeman. Some being had seen him before he fell asleep ; it was seated
under a pine tree with this medicine over it. The man rose, took the
iri9, laid it on the ground, unwrapped it, sang a song, and threw the
stick, naming some country. It fell there, and Long-otter heard praise-
songs and words of thanks. Then the visitant sang a praise-song and
walked to the mountain top. Long-otter returned to camp, not knowing
whether he had been sleeping or not. Everything he saw came true. His
visitant was an eagle. Long-otter made three or four copies after his
vision.

Looks-at-a-bull's-penis is also credited with a vision of the trid.
He once went out fasting, but could not endure the hardships for more

422 Anthropological Papers American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XXV,

than three days, when he returned. Then Cunning-man^ gave hmi in-
structions. He told him to put on new clothes, also to make a sweatloclge
before sunrise and to leave camp as soon as possible when he wanted to
go for a vision. Whenever he returned from a quest thereafter, Cunning-
man went to him and asked whether he had seen anything, but he had
nothing to tell. Once he went again, going up the same hill as before,,
and stayed three days and nights. Then at sunset he saw an irid, and
returned on the fourth evening. Cunning-man again visited him and
asked, "Has anything happened yet?" He told what he had seen. At
that time he was so poor that he was obHged to walk. Cunning-man said,
"What you have seen is a great thing."

The people moved to the site of Yellow-crane's present dwelHng
place and camped there. Several men went up the mountains. Looks-
at-a-bull's-penis went lower down, fasting two days. In a dream he was
told to come this way. When the would-be visionaries returned, all
built sudatories, sweated themselves, and told what they had experienced.
Looks-at-a-buU's-penis said that nothing had happened to him except
that he had been told to go in a certain direction. He went and stayed
there for three days. He was shown a place where there was light. He
came home and saw another vision. He saw a spot up the creek near
Lodge Grass canyon and a child-woman there. Returning after a few
days he came near Black Canyon. His first vision had been antm but he
had not understood it. Now he stayed for three days, dreamt, and under-
stood the trid. He saw the child-woman again. He returned and after a
few days set out with five men for another revelation. He said to him-
self, "Now I will try to stay four days." He stayed four days and was
always on the point of starvation. A hawk {ma-\-ipxdxe) adopted him,
then he returned home. He walked slowly from weakness. A bear
jumped up and caught hun. He thought he was being killed, but the
bear held him up and asked whether he could see all the world. "Yes."
Then the bear said, "Put your fingers into my mouth." The bear had no
teeth.

The woman he had seen in a vision was married by one of Looks-at-a-
bull's-penis's brothers, who was killed the following year. His widow
was with child and gave birth to Medicine-crow. Looks-at-a-bull's-
penis married the widow. The light he had seen in his vision was a
bacoritsi'tse (see p. 385).

'This volume, 256 seq.

1922.] Loivie, Religion of the Crow. 423

Looks-at-a-biiirs-penis made an trid and called all the children to
make them touch it and pray to it. He built a sweatlodge, bade the
children bring firewood, and made them sweat. Then none of them died
young and they grew up increasing the population. When he saw big
birds up in the air, he would make medicine and they would come down
to him forthwith. He had frogs for his hatsirjpe. He had medicine to
make horses run fast. People with race horses would give him four
presents so that he might make their horses swift. He made hawk-
medicine for Medicine-crow, who was subsequently also adopted by a
hawk in a vision. Looks-at-a-bull's-penis was a member of the Tobacco
society and would make the Tobacco grow by making medicine with isL

A war medicine of some consequence, part of which was secured by
Mr. Simms of the Field Musemn in Chicago, is called hatsipe, Digging-
stick. It is derived from the witch Hicictawig' and consists of a number
of sticks, of which the largest is decorated with a lightning Une; the
smaller sticks were kept out of sight. This medicine was carried by the
captain of war parties. According to Flat-head- woman, it was made by
the owner of the Sacred Arrow (p. 391). Another informant says that
Takes-twice first saw the hatdpe in a vision granted by Hicictawia,
that Duritec (Humpback) made the specunen owned by Whinnies, and
that Robert Raise-up must have sold the medicine to Mr. Simms.

Dr. J. A. Mason of the Field Museum has kindly sent me the follow-
ing detailed description of the bundle • —

The principal stick is 1 m. long and 3 cm. wide at the head, 2]'2 cm. wide in the
middle. It is entirely covered with red ocher. The lower end comes to a rather blunt
point, while the upper end consists of three rings. At this end there are tied with
thongs of buckskin seven pendent eagle feathers also covered with red ocher. The
length of the stick is incised with a zigzag line consisting of just about a hundred
angles. On the opposite side there is a crude representation of two arms and hands
incised, as you will see in the enclosed rubbing. Then there are three plain sticks
about 1 cm. in width and covered with red ocher. They range from 103 to 107 cms.
in length. There are four sticks about 88 cm. long and 1 cm. wide, well-rounded and
covered with ocher. The lower end is pointed, while the upper end is left in two bands
which still retain the natural bark, evidently a cherry, to which stick are tied with
buckskin thongs two pendent eagle feathers which have been dyed purple and then
covered with red ocher. On each stick one feather is complete, while the other feather
has been stripped for half its length. In each case there are smaller red feathers
attached to the base of the large feather. The last stick is like these latter, except
that it is shorter, 69 cm. long, and apparently made from a manufactured turned and
varnished rod.

'This volume, 128, 204.

424 Anthropological Papers American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XXV,

When leading war parties Gray-bull took with him the skin of a bur-
rowing animal, decorated with numerous woodpecker feathers. A piece
of wood was attached to the back, and on the ventral side there was a ring
of beads representing a hoop. Two strings served to tie the medicine
round the neck. Hawk-bells and an elk tooth below formed additional
decorative features. During horse raids Gray-bull used another medi-
cine, which he showed me. It consisted of a buffalo-skin representation
of a horse, supplied with strings so it could be tied round the neck.

MAGIC.

With a people who stress to so great an extent as the Crow the im-
portance of visions and the aid supplied by the supernatural guardians
appearing on such occasions it is difficult to divorce magical from ani-
mistic practices. That is to say, a certain procedure resembHng the
magical performance of other peoples may ultimately derive its efficacy
from the revelations of a spirit. Nevertheless, there is little doubt that
to some extent imitative magic is used without a clear-cut spiritual asso-
ciation. Thus, at the close of the Tobacco adoption ceremony all spec-
tators raise aloft whatever they are holding in their hands and this sym-
bolizes the growth of the Tobacco. So, in the account of sorcery under
the head of shamanism (p. 345) the employment of imitative magic in
conjunction with reliance on animistic aid has already been pointed out.
Altogether, however, it may safely be stated that pure magic occupies a
very subordinate position in Crow life as contrasted with activities
based on visionary experiences. Such performances of weather magic as
are attributed to Lone-tree and Big-ox (p. 344) are exphcitly or impUcitly
derived from their guardian spirits. Perhaps the hacoritsi'tse form the
most important case of a group of objects not ordinarily revealed in
visions and possessing powers independently of spirits.

Bull-tongue showed me a stick used to attract women. It was over
a foot long and was decorated with buffalo hair twice that length ; near
the bottom of the stick there was a dewclaw on each side. The owner
carried this implement in dances, using it as a fan. Unfortunately I did
not ascertain whence the stick derived its power, but from all I have
learned concerning Crow notions I feel convinced that it must have been
revealed in a vision.

This was certainly true of the majority of love-charming methods.
The term duck'Uo, also used for casting an evil spell in other connections
(p. 345), is specifically employed for love-charming. Charming a woman
is called Md-ruck'ilo and a woman who charms a man is designated as

1922.] Loivie, Religion of the Crow. 425

ak-hatse-ruck' ud. Both in legend and in eveiy-daj' life the elk is credited
mth taking pity on a man spurned by a woman and endowing him with
irresistible powers of fascination.^ Sometimes a tangible substance is
given to the visionary to attract his mistress, e.g., different kinds of
perfume or moss and an eagle plume, or elk dewclaws strung together
and attached to a httle sweetgrass. In revenge for his mistress's cruelty
the legendary lover is represented as repudiating her after having gained
his ends. At Pryor I saw a robe of elk hide on which was depicted a female
elk in front of a male. This blanket, I was told, had been dreamt by a
man eager to possess a woman who had spurned him. After going to the
mountains and praying, he saw the robe in a vision and subsequently
captivated the girl with it.

A woman deserted by her husband might go in cjuest of a vision and
receive instructions. She might be told to burn incense and smoke her
clothing with it; also to use certain songs and then walk toward her
husband. These words were given as typical of such songs: —
Irak batsgc hur^m, awaka hOreke.

That man is coming, I see him coming.

According to one informant the woman receives a special weed-mecUcine
to be incensed and it is its odor that compels the husband to come to her.
Then other women mil come to her when in similar difficulties and ask
for doses of the same medicine.

iThis volume, 191, 196.

OFFERINGS AND PRAYERS.

The Sun is preeminently the recipient of offerings and the object of
supplication. In the old days a man setting out on a war party would
say to the Sun : "If I bring something back, I will give you eagle feathers."
Sometimes fox hides and later red cloths were substituted. The latter
were always decorated with a black circle and usually a bunch of broad-
leafed sagebrush was tied to the cloth together with a horse's tail. There
was first a gathering of about ten persons in a tipi, and about sunrise they
would begin to sing, singing four songs. When they had done, they took
the cloth out, brought little children over to where they were holding it
and made them touch it, the children themselves voicing the wish that
they might live till the next winter.

The sweatlodge is generally conceived as a Sun offering, and all
albino buffalo skins were ceremonially given to this supernatural being.

The presentation of a white buffalo to the Sun is already mentioned
by Maximilian.^ It was described by a number of informants. Three-
wolves said that the Crow sometimes encountered a yearling buffalo
calf, white either on the back or heart or tail. The man who killed such a
calf went home without touching it, gave a present to one of his father's
clansmen, and told him he had slain a white calf. The father's clans-
man would go out, locate the calf, which invariably fell with its face
towards the east,^ and skin it carefully so as not to cut the hide, which
was then turned over very slowly. The meat was not touched at all, for
it was said, "If you eat of the meat, your hair will turn gray prematurely."
The father's clansman took the hide to camp, singing a song in praise of
.his clansman's son and praying that this man might have good luck.
Then he would take the hide to one of his father's clansmen, saying, "I
have brought you this hide for you to offer it to the Sun." The old man
would take the skin, tie it to a long pole, carry it through camp with a
laudatory chant, and say, 'T shall offer this to the Sun; I want everybody
in camp to touch this hide." He went from the camp towards sunrise,
planted the stick into the ground, and said, "Sun, I have given you a
blanket." Then he prayed for coups or horses, or that his relatives
should live to the next season without illness. He might say, "The
people have done a great thing in giving you this, thej^ wish for . . ."
Usually only old people asked for gifts. Four offering songs without
words were sung. This offering was made just before sunrise.

iMaxinailian, Prinz zu Wied, Reise in das innere Nord-America in den Jahren 1832 his 1834
(Coblenz, 1841), vol. 1, -lOl.

-This is confirmed by all other informants.

1922.] Lowie, Religion of the Crow. 427

Gray-bull recollected an albino buffalo that was killed near Hardin,
Montana; it was the fastest buffalo in the herd and when a hunter
crossed its tracks, his horse would be exhausted. On this occasion the
man who usually made Sun offerings was not of the party, hence the
leader himself made the offering. The hunters counted coup on the white
buffalo and the fom- coup-strikers ate the kidney-, no other part of the
flesh being touched. Gray-bull struck the second coup and got a piece
of the kidney; holding both hind legs he wished that he might capture a
gun, get an enemy's bod^', and strike a second coup. That autumn the
Crow killed some Piegan, and Gray-bull struck a coup, got an enemy's
body and gun, and also captured a medicine pipe; the last-mentioned he
got without having prayed for it.

Gray-bull distinguishes an albino buffalo, hid-\-ictse, and a yellow
buffalo with a black spot on the back, nlkawate; instead of having the
black circle, the latter sometimes was black from the sides down. The
ndkawate were usually calves. The ceremonies for white and yellow
buffaloes were alike. The songs used with them differed from those sung
in offering red cloth.

One informant said that the killer of an albino buffalo rode home
with the skin in front of hmi, singing praise songs, and presented the
hide to the chief, who painted pictures of the sun and the rainbow on
the back and tied a plume to the tail. At daybreak he sang a song, telhng
the Sun of the offering, attached it to a high pole, and placed it on a hill,
where it was left to fall; no one would touch it thereafter.

Sitting-elk said that only a medicineman was permitted to skin an
albino buffalo. The skin was suspended from an ash or cottonwood pole.

I secured two versions of the prayer uttered at the formal presenta-
tion of an albino skin to the Sun : —

ax'ace, disSace diawak'. bare-ambiraxbak'e itsi. bak'ate,

Sun your robe I make. Our way of living good (may it be) . The children,

biraxbak'e itsik"ate d'tsipare ahui-matsik'.

the people peacefully (may they) multiply and be plentiful.

2.

kahe, masa'ka, kan-disaace diawahik. kam-bari'ku,

Greeting, father's clansman, now your robe I have just made. Now I give it to you,

k'ok'. ambibiraxbake itsia mak'ii. bac-birax bak'e -itse awirupe

this is it. My way of living good give me. My people (object) safely the next year

awawi. bac-bak'ate a'tsipari, barak' duxirek'ate

I shall reach with them. My children may they increase, my sons when on the warpath

itsirik'ate aruo, barak' duxire ise cipita

horses (may they) bring, my son when on the warpath (with) face black

>Indicating victory.

428 Anthropological Papers American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XXV,
k'Qi. amarire hutse biic-koi, bice

may he return. When I am on the move, the wind to my face may come, the buffalo

bis axis. hinne biawakce bac-bapare Itsi, batsurak

towards me (may) gather. This summer my plants (may they be) good, the cherries

ahui. bare itsi, ba+isande bl hi-sai. biawekcc

plenty. The winter (may it be) good, illness me shall not reach. Summer

bik'e - raracia awakawi, a^)e arakiixke hi'irak awakawi. a^e

grass new may I see, leaves full-sized when they come may I see. Leaves

didxe awakawi. bii'pe basakace awakawi. ambiawakuse awdkawi,

leaves yellow may I see. Snowfall the very first may I see. Spring may I see,

bacbiraxbak'e xaxiia itsik'ate awawi.

my people all in safety may I reach it (the season) with them.

From various statements it appears that making a ritualistic offering
to the Sun, whether in the form of an albino buffalo sldn or of red cloth,
was viewed like other ceremonial privileges, i.e., was vested in individuals
who directty or indirectly derived their authority from a vision. The
Hardin offering was made by someone else avowedly as a makeshift;
Medicine-crow's father and grandfather are mentioned as preeminently
persons who presented the Sun with red cloth; and so forth.

Offerings are not restricted to the Sun, but maj^ be made to any
supernatural agency. Pryor Creek derives its name, aru^t-a^ce, i.e.,
Arrow-stream, from the injunction of a mythic dwarf who decreed that all
the Indians passing a certain spot should shoot arrows into a cleft as an
offering to him. The legendary incident reacted on actual practice for
within the lifetime of my informants the rule was followed bj' the Crow.^
Offerings were sometimes made to the fire, to water, or some curiously
shaped rock, accompanied with some such utterance as, "Eat this. Water,
so that I may live long." Beads were presented to the medicine rocks
(bacoritsi'tse) . Of course, the cutting of one's flesh in the quest of a
vision is also regarded as a form of offering.

Offerings tended to ensure longevity. An old woman volunteered
the information that she had made many offerings in her day; hence she
had lived until her hair had turned gray.

The sweatlodge (awusud) is a form of offering that plays an im-
portant part in the life of the Crow Indians and has alread}^ been
described in connection with the Tobacco ceremonj'. It is clear from the
best accounts that primarily it was a distinctly ritualistic institution and
was not indulged in without some definite religious purpose. Nowadays
anyone may put up a sudatory and sweat, and there are men who have a
passion for frequent indulgence in sweat-bathing which an interpreter
compared to that of white people addicted to the cigarette-smoking

'This volume, 169 f.

1922.] Lowie, Religion of the Crow. 429

habit. Anciently a sweatlodge was held sacred and might not be erected
except by one who had acquired the title thereto either by personal vision
or by purchase. Even those who had the privilege would only sweat,
according to Bull-all-the-time, when prompted by a dream. Gray-bull
and Bull-all-the-time agree that formerly only or mostly old people
went into sudatories. Gray-bull stated that their use for medicinal
purposes is relatively recent; they were formerly built when going on a
war party, when returning from a successful raid with a horse or after
striking a coup, and in connection with the Tobacco society. Bull-all-
the-time says people would make conditional pledges to put up a suda-
tory. "If I get well, I'll erect a sweatlodge." "If I live till the fall, I
shall make a sweatlodge. ' ' According to him the original use of the lodge
was for old people, later the Crow came to use it for medicines (the
Tobacco?) and in going on war parties, and finally anyone came to use it
without particular reason.

Bull-all-the-time declared that the Moon originated the sweatlodge,
that formerly sweatlodges were put up in Moon's honor in the evening
and in Sun's in the morning. Only lately this informant has taken to
putting up sudatories at noon. The sweatlodge had been his adopted
father's medicine. According to Gray-bull, the sweatlodge was put up
in honor of the Sun, who was regarded as the owner. This he remarked,
appeared from the formula used in making the vow of erection, viz.: —
masa'ka, ba+itsem act awa-rak, awusua diawawik".

My father's clansman, something good camp if I bring to, sweatlodge I shall make.

The point of this argument is that the stem for father's clansman is
used in vocative form only when praying to the Sun. Little-rump says
that in going to war the sweatlodge was erected in honor of Old-woman's-
Grandson.

Today the same sweathouse frame may be used repeatedly, but in
the old days when the people were constantly on the move and sweat-
lodges were much more rarely employed there was httle chance to use a
frame a second time. The number of willows used for the frame varies
from twelve to one hundred. Medicine-crow, in describing the Tobacco
ritual, said the number might be one hundred or any number with four
in the units' place, from fourteen to ninety-four. Three-wolves asserted
that twelve-willow frames were reckoned less sacred than others and had
the fireplace on the side instead of in the center. Others did not associate
the latter detail with the number of sticks but declared that the fashion
of shifting the fireplace to the side was a recent innovation borrowed
from the Nez Perce.

430 Anthropological Papers American Museum of Natm-al History. [Vol. XXV,

Three-wolves furnished the following account of the procedure : —
The first four stones are put into the fireplace, one by one, by means of a forked
stick. When the fourth has been deposited, the stone-bearer voices some wish, where-
upon he may throw in as many rocks as he pleases, two by two. Water is set down by
the stones. The bathers enter, one by one, never walking in front of the stone-tender.
The lodge is covered, then one man dips his hand into the water and sprinkles four
handfuls on the rocks, whereupon four wishes are expressed. The man nearest the
entrance tells of a dream, such as, "I have seen snow on the ground," or, "I have seen
horsetracks." The rest cry, "Thanks!" and pray aloud: "May I get there!" (if a
season has been mentioned.) The door is flung open and the inmates cool off. The
dreamer recounts a second dream, then the cover is put on again. Now seven hand-
fuls are poured on the rocks to symbolize the Dipper. After the period of sweating
the second man from the door tells his dreams, and the lodge is uncovered for a while.
Next ten cupfuls are poured on the rocks and the third man tells his dreams. The
fourth time they throw on an uncounted {tsimusu^Y number of handfuls. The fourth
man tells only one dream, then cries, "Throw the door wide open!" All now jump
up and run into the river. While inside the bathers scourge themselves with horsetail"^
or sagebrush whips in order to perspire still more. In the smaller lodges five or six
sweat themselves at a time; in the larger ones from ten to twelve.

Other informants add some interesting details. Bull-all-the-time
says that in the winter some men would roll in the snow after a sweat-
bath. According to him, the lodge is carpeted with sagebrush. Four
times they pretend to put isk incense on the fireplace, and the fifth time
they actually do so. This, if I understand my informant correctly,
takes place before the deposition of the rocks. Gray-bull explained that
the dirt removed from the fireplace is piled up outside the frame between
the door and the fire in which the rocks are heated and that no one is
permitted to pass between. The man to pour water entered first and
sat down on the left side from one entering; the rest passed in behind
him, all going on the left side. While the first four rocks were deposited,
all in the lodge kept quiet. After the fourth stone they all expressed their
wishes (Three- wolves only mentions the stone-carrier in this connection) .
When the water-pourer has told of the season he has dreamt of, the
people both inside and outside cry, "Thanks!" Then the door is opened.
After a while the pourer says, ''Close the door! All of us shall get there^
together." While the door is open, water is put in and all the bathers
drink of it. One of them will say, "I am drinking the long rain" {xar-
dtsg'e k'o icbtk'). This refers to the long rain in the fall and is equivalent
to a prayer that the speaker and his companions may live to see the next
fall. When all have drunk, the dreamer says, "Close the door. I want

•Fromi.sirne, to count; su, not (plural form) .

^Buffalo tails mounted on short sticks are perhaps more common.

^That is, to the season mentioned.

1922.

Loioie, Religion of the Crow. 431

to drink in peace" {itsik'ata birichiwik'). Gray-bull describes this drink-
ing feature as if it belonged to the second intermission; it is not clear
whether it is restricted to that period or not. As an offering the sweat-
bathers would tie red cloth to a stick and lean it against the sweatlodge.
Little-rump says that the stick with the red cloth, for which an eagle
wing might be substituted, was put on top of the lodge and the owner
would say, addressing Old-woman's-grandson, "I have made this sweat-
lodge because you told me to make it. (Kdricbapitudc, hd-wi-di9-ra'tsic
hinnem kan-didwak\) I give you this red cloth (or eagle wing)." On
the red cloth were marked stars or moons and sometimes a circle to
represent the sun. The owner sat on the left side for one entering and
would sing songs; all who came in were expected to sing. The floor of
the lodge was nicely prepared, being covered with ground-cedar, and
charcoal was sprinkled on it. Little-rump bought the privilege of making
a sweatlodge and puts one up twice a year, in the spring and in the fall,
in obedience to the instructions received at the time of the purchase.
Sometimes he has made a hundred-willow lodge.

Women are not excluded from the sweatlodge but they enter it more
particularly in connection with Tobacco adoptions, when they normally
sit by their husbands.

My personal experience with Crow sweatlodges is the following. I
omit matters of routine described above. In the sunmier of 1910
Medicine-crow was telling me about the sweatlodge and offered to take
me into one since he had intended going in that afternoon anyway.
For several hours the rocks were heated in a big fire. Medicine-crow,
One-star, and Plenty-hawk entered the open frame stripped to their gee-
strings, while I retained my drawers. Into the uncovered lodge were
passed the rocks, which even then created a terrific heat. When all had
been passed in, the blankets were thrown on the frame, covering it com-
pletely and making the lodge pitch dark. When water was thrown on the
rocks, producing steam, the heat became almost unbearable and I
availed myself of the utter darkness slightly to raise a flap of one of the
blankets and thrust my nose into the air. When the blanket was raised
I saw that my companions were like myself bathed in perspiration. I
had had enough and withdrew. The Indians assured me I would catch
cold unless I immediately bathed in the nearby creek, but I declined and
of course suffered no disagreeable consequences. The Indians continued
their sweat-bathing in the prescribed fashion and after the final lifting
of the cover they proceeded to plunge into the cold water of the stream.

432 Anthropological Papers American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XXV,

Prayers have been cited in different connections, notably under the
heading of Visions; also in the earlier part of this chapter. The concept
of praying is an old one, and a modern church is designated as ara-
tsiwakd-\-u, the place where they pray. Women as well as men offered
prayers. Young-crane said she only prayed when there was a specific
reason for it. For example, when her kin went out to fight she would
thus address Old-Man-Coyote or the Sun : —
Isa'kawuatakat, bi wakute napioreti.

Dear Old-Man-Coyote, those around me may they not be killed.

When one of her relatives went away somewhere, she offered a corre-
sponding prayer: —

Isa'kawuatakat, Itsik'ata k'ui.

Dear Old-Man-Coyote, in safety may he come back.

When her husband was killed, she mourned his loss and cut off a finger
joint, but did not pray then.

In smoking it was proper to point the pipe first up, then down, next
offering it to the four cardinal directions. In so doing. Gray-bull would
pray to the four winds; he had learned the prayer from Bell-rocks, to
whom he was indebted for other reUgious instruction. Occasion-
d\\y he also offered smoke to the full-moon. Men owning medicine-pipes
also pointed them in the manner explained above.

TABOOS.

Tribal taboos are by no means prominent, and individual ones are
naturally based on specific visionary instructions. Maximilian mentions
the superstition against smoking a pipe in a lodge where footgear is sus-
pended; he also states that when men smoke in a group each one takes
not more than three puffs, whereupon he hands the pipe with a special
sort of movement to his left-hand neighbor.^ I am inchned to regard
the former custom as a purely personal regulation. Since the connection
between moccasins and smoking is not obvious, it is worth recalhng
that according to Lewis and Clark the Shoshoni as a sign of friendship
removed their moccasins before smoking. Personally, I failed to get this
corroborated, but an old Lemhi told me that medicinemen formerly
took off their moccasins when smoking during the treatment of a
patient.2 Mr. Spier learned of a similar rule in the case of certain Kiowa
Sun dance participants.

Taboos were common in connection with a hdtsinpe. Li this case
the usual consequence of a transgression was the appearance of the
bdtsmpe. For example, there is an old woman whose hatsirape does not
Uke to hear crying. Once her grandchild was crying, and a cedar (spray?)
began to come out of her mouth.

In this as in some other instances the observance of the rule is- not
necessarily dependent on a person's voHtion. One informant said that
he was told never to allow the young of any animal to be taken to his
lodge. Some one must have taken some young animal there unknown to
the owner, which would account for the rheumatism that has afflicted
him for eleven years.

Food taboos were sometimes imposed at the tune of a vision or
when medicines were bought. Thus, when Gray-bull slept in the Tobacco
garden, he was ordered not to eat the manifolds of a buffalo or cow; and
when he secured some bird medicine he was told not to eat birds' eggs.
He was still obeying these prohibitions at the time of my interview.

'Maximilian, ibid., 400.
^Lowie, this series, vol. 2, 213.

433

MISCELLANEOUS DATA.

Jim Carpenter tells me that children must not lie on their stomachs,
facing the fire, and are scolded if they do so, because it is a sign that their
mother will die soon.

If a cocoon (ak'irewe) is tied round a baby's neck, it will not readily
wake up; hence this device is resorted to in the case of infants who cry too
much.

Horned-toads were not regarded as persons, but they were believed
to understand the Crow language. Girls would take a horned-toad, lay
it on its ventral (?) side, gently rub it, and then say, "May I become a
good bead-worker! May my children be born without difficulty! " Then
they shpped the animal down inside the neck part of their dress and
allowed it to fall down. A boy would say, "May I be able to make a good
bow and arrows!" Gray-bull consulted horned-toads with regard to the
location of buffalo, judging by the direction in which the animals faced.

Before going on the warpath a man would sometimes kill a buffalo,
take some of the blood from its shoulderblade, and spill some badger
blood over it. In this mixture he could see a reflection of himself. If
he saw himself with a wrinkled face, it meant that he would hve to be an
old man; if his image showed the scalp cut off, it meant that this fate
would befall him. In the latter case he would be afraid to go on the war-
path. If the hair of the image fell down over the face, it meant a natural
death, while blood streaming down of course signified a violent end. In
reply to the question whether he had ever used this form of divination
himself, my informant, BuU-all-the-time, said that he was afraid of it
(Mtsirik; ) . Gray-bull said that this form of divination was not in vogue
in his day, because people were afraid to use it. However, his grand-
father had resorted to it and, having seen his reflection with white hair
and wrinkled face, he became very brave and would thereafter dash into
the midst of the enemy and wrest away their guns.

Wolf's-white-belly (tset-sre-tsiQc) once went to herd horses. He
watered them, took them out to the hills, and laid down a rope. Then
he took his saddle and sat on it. While watching his horses, he felt some-
thing move under his seat. He thought he would go home, took off his
blanket, and tried to take the rope, but it had turned into a snake. He
had to leave the rope there and go home without it. Next morning he
came where he had left it. The snake had turned back into a rope as
before.

434

1922.] Lowie, Religion of the Crow. 435

Scolds-the-bear was about fourteen years old when the Crow were
camped fifteen miles above the site of Forsyth on the Yellowstone River.
A boy about sixteen years old, being the oldest of the boys, had the rest
gather round him for a leader. They played beii^g on a war party and
imitated warriors. They took bark and used it as a scalp. This boy's
father saw them and said, "Two days from now I'll send my boy on a
war party and all of you shall go with him." He was roused by the boy's
playing and had this announced by the criei'. After the boys had started
and gone some distance they waited. Scolds-the-bear was in the party.
The boy's father also went along, but his son was leader; he had two
center tail feathers of a magpie tied to the back of his head and at the
bottom there were red-dyed plumes. This was his medicine. Only one
white man's hut was standing where we camped in the day. In the eve-
ning the boy's father had disappeared. At night he returned. "All you
boys, saddle up, there's one enemy there whom we'll fight." In this basin
they came upon a man in an Indian coat with a knife in his hand. This
man ran after the boy. They could not kill him. The smallest boys got
scared and merely watched. He chased one boy, when another ran be-
hind hun and shot him in the back. One boy hit him first, thus gaining
a first coup. It was a long-haired man of about forty ; they stripped off his
clothing and scalped him. "All you boys, I'll give you a chance to look
at it tomorrow; don't turn back to look at it," said the leader's father.
They went home and after eating went to bed. The next morning they
brought horses, which happened to go to the place of the killing. Scolds-
the-bear chanced to go for horses. Though told not to look, he dis-
obeyed. What they had killed was only a rotten piece of wood shaped
like a man. The arms and legs were only of ground-cedar. The knife
was a real knife, which Hke the clothing belonged to the man who made
it. The scalp they took off was that of a former enemy and had been
placed on the head of the manikin. When they scalped, the blood looked
as if fresh; the next day it was dry Hke an old scalp. The leader of that
boys' party is living still. There are many other witnesses to this
bakumbtriu (p. 347).

Long ago the Crow suffered from a heavy storm in the early part of
the spring; when the grass came up and colts were born, they had to fix
blankets for the colts so as to protect them against dying from the cold.
The people called the storm Dog's-vulva (micg e'-cirec) . One spring the
storm was especially violent and blankets were provided for all the new-
born colts. One man coming home through the storm caught sight of a
man wearing a hat, overcoat, and gloves. Putting down his load, the

436 Anthropological Papers American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XXV,

Crow took his gun and killed the stranger. After returning he told the
people he had killed Dog's- vulva. They would not believe it. He said he
would prove it. All the people came out to see what he had killed, being
very anxious about it. When they arrived, they found an old piece of
wood. Since that time they never suffered from that storm.

Mr. Simms has described and figured a pecuUar stone monument
situated in the Big Horn range in Wyoming just across the Montana
boundary. From a stone 'hub' about 3 feet high he found 27 spokes,
i.e., lines of stones, radiating to a stone circle about 245 feet in diameter;
at or near the periphery there were seven smaller stone structures.^
According to Flat-dog this monument was regarded by the Crow as the
Sun's lodge, i.e., as a lodge made for the Sun and used by him as a camp-
ing-place. As a boy Flat-dog walked through it, counting fifty steps.
Many of the Crow would go there to fast; the structure has been there
as long back as any period alluded to by previous generations. Those
who fasted there would sometimes hear steps of some one walking, but
looking up would see nothing. Of such a one the other people were wont
to say, ''He is a coward, that is why he did not see a vision." This meant
that he had been terrified by the sound and had looked round, thus los-
ing the vision he would otherwise have secured.

The High Lodge dance (ac-hdtsg i-risud) was never performed by the
Crow until about twenty-five years ago (in' 1914), when they saw the
Nez Perce dance it. A member of that tribe told Old-dog the following
story. One very cold winter evening a young man fell sick and died as
the darkness was setting in. The people cried all night. They said,
"We'll dig a hole and bury him tomorrow." In the morning they built a
fire. The dead man rose and said, "Cook, I want to eat." They cooked
breakfast and he ate. He called for the Nez Perce chief and said to him,
"I wish to talk with you." "All right." "I am talking with you now,
but at noon my father will take me back. Bid all the young men in your
tribe prepare a feast and bring it in." They did so. "Let all men come
into the tent." When all were there and had sat down, he continued: "I
am going to sing; learn my song." He had a bell in his hand, which he
shook, singing his song till all inside the lodge knew it. "All shall sing it
now." When he felt sure that all knew it, he rose and danced, singing
at the same time. He told them he should die and was not to be buried at
once. All were to stand in two rows facing each other and were to sing and
dance to the song. During this performance he was to be washed and laid

>S. C. Simms, A Wheel-shaped Stone Monument in Wyoming, {American Anthropologist, N. S.,
vol. 5, 1003), 107 seq.

1922.] Lowie, Religion of the Croiv. 437

down. Then a hole was to be dug and he should be buried. "Hereafter,
whenever any one dies in the winter, do exactly the same way." There-
after they were to dance for four days and buffalo would flock from all
directions so there would be no trouble about the meat supply. The
3'oung man did not order this of his own accord but for some being above.
When the Nez Perce observed this ceremony they camped in a circle;
not so the Crow, who did not regard it as sacred.

APPENDIX.

The Five Brothers.^

Once there was a big Crow camp on the Yellowstone belonging to
the Many-lodges division. All the Indians were seized with cramps and
died except five boys. These picked up their bows, arrows, and sinews,
in search of other Indians. They had a flint to strike fire with, but it got
worn out, so they were obhged to drill fire. They lived on birds and rab-
bits. In the season when the meadowlarks grow fat they sighted a big
camp in the Big Horn Mountains. They said, "Let us wait before going
in." On the side of a watering-place there was a thick brush, where they
cooked and ate some meadowlarks late at night. They slept. The next
day the men watering their horses saw the five boys. One man tending a
herd turned them loose and entered the river to swim. He came out,
carrying his clothes on his arm. The three older boys were asleep. Their
birds and rabbits were cooking. The other men who were there did not
invite the boys, but this man said, "Come with me to my tipi; wake up
your brothers." These three were bashful at first. He said, "Come over
and eat with me." "Wait till we have eaten our rabbits here." "Come,
you will have a better meal there." When done, he took them to his
camp. His first wife had died and his second wife's husband had fallen
in battle. They had no children of their own and the woman's brothers
had been killed by the enemy; her mother w^is living in another tipi.
The man said to his wife : "You have been worrying about your brothers;
I have brought you these to be your brothers." She sent the two young-
est to her mother next door and said, "I am your sister, you are my
brothers." She cooked a great deal of meat, giving them a better meal
than they had had. "Have you enough?" "Yes." She made a bed for
them.

The boys got fatter. They left, saying they were going to fast and
he should not worry about them. Each chose a place of his own, the
one a point, a second a knoll, and so on. One went to a gap and saw a
snake fighting with a rock-hzard (etarire = horned-toad?). The snake had
eaten up all its young. Where the boy was walking there was a sUde
and he followed the lizard to a cave, where it disappeared. It came out
again with a male, hiding under a grass-grown knoll. The snake passed
and the male caught it by its throat. It tried to wriggle loose. The
female remained hidden, not knowing what to do. The snake could not

iThis tale was found among my notes after the publication of other myths.

438

1922.] Lowie, Religion of the Crow. 439

free itself and died.^ The toad cut it open, and the httle ones came out
still alive. All the toads went where the parents had come from. The
visionary as a result of his experience became a doctor.

The boy who was fasting on a point seated himself and looked down.
He saw a light, but in the morning he could not find it. On the fourth
morning he planted a stake in the spot where he thought the light might
be. At night he saw the hght and the stake a little above it. He went
there and found a black hacdritsi'tse on top of some buifalo chips. This
was the source of the light. The third boy saw a vision making him a
good shot ; he had four arrows. The two youngest boys did not fast but
stayed at home.

A 3'oung man who had killed two deer passed the f asters. He said,
"You must be hungry, pick out what you want to eat." They selected
the hindquarters, front legs, and paunch, and asked him to build a fire
for them. He did so; they cooked, ate, and went home. When they got
home, the boy who had seen the sacred rock hung it up above his pillow.
His brother-in-law was out hunting and killed a buffalo. His wife was
going to make a parfleche but the boy said, "Make me a medicine bag
(bdcuce)." They went to the river and painted the bag, dug up sweet-
grass, dried it, smoked it and put it into the container on top of the medi-
cine rock.

The boy who had seen the snake asked his brother-in-law, "What is a
weasel-necklace (u"ta-ware-apia)V' They did not know and sent for
the older people, who said, "Our chief's son has one round his neck."
It was made of the darkest part of an otter's skin decorated with weasel-
skin and shells (maxdxid) ; only well-to-do children wore it. The follow-
ing morning the chief said, "Let us move camp to where there are buffalo."
They moved. The boys left. The doctor could hear what was said at a
great distance. He heard his brother-in-law say, ' 'I wish my brother-in-
law were here to go with the hunters." The buffalo were chased and
killed. The two younger boys got a man (?) and he gave them a buffalo
to choose from, saying, "I'll carry it over to your grandmothers.' " The
three older boys killed a fat buffalo with their medicine arrows. The
young man took the two boys home. The three older boys butchered and
divided their buffalo and got back late at night. They heard that the
chief's son had been thrown from his horse and that his head was cracked.
All night one could hear drums beating and the doctors' singing.

'Among the Paviotso of Nevada I discovered a strong belief in the power of the horned-toad to
overcome a rattlesnake.

440 Anthrojwlogical Papers American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XXV,

The young man said to the two boys, "You may keep the horse and
saddle or bring it back as you please." The woman said, "Bring the
horse back." They brought it back. The two boys told their three older
brothers about it, and they said, "That is right, don't take what those
people give you, we are orphans. We'll pay them back some time. The
only ones we have anything to do with are our sister and our brother-in-
law."

The doctor said to his brother-in-law, "Brother-in-law, tell the chief
that we will doctor his boy." They wanted to get his necklace. Their
sister said, "No, you are too young." Then they did not say anything.
Their brother-in-law wanted to tell the chiefs, but his wife would not let
him. He shpped out and told Cunning-man.^ Cunning-man went to
the chief and said, "Put all your presents together and go outside. The five
boys over there want to doctor your son. Let no one pass in front of
them. Have the door face the boys' tipi." Then it was announced that
no one should cross the doctor's path. The five boys were glad. Four of
them went ahead and the doctor came last. The two little ones sat down
by their mother, the two older ones went to the foot of the bed, and the
doctor stood b}- the door and stamped on the ground. The sick boj^ had
been unconscious and was bleeding from the nose. When the doctor
stamped on the ground, the patient groaned. The doctor came closer and
stamped on the ground again. The boy sat up. A third time he did it,
and the boy braced hiinseK up. He went nearer and stamped the ground
in front of the boy like a buffalo, turned back and ran for the door. The
bo}^ rose, followed him round and out of the tipi and came back again
panting. He sat down and said, "Mother, I am hungry, give me some-
thing to eat." The chief was glad and gave them all presents and invited
them to sta3', but they would not do so. The boys said to their brother-
in-law, "This is the first good thing we can do for you. You may keep
these presents. The chief heard about the necklace and brought it to
them. "That is what we wanted." They told their brother-in-law,
"We are going on the warpath; do not tell anyone. If anyone asks, sa}'
'They left me; I don't know where they have gone.' "

The}' started. The rock-visionary was leader. They had been gone
two days when their brother-in-law was summoned to the council.
"Where are your brothers-in-law?" "I don't know, they have left me."
One man said in mockerj-, "If thej' should bring a big herd of horses, we
should laugh." The doctor heard this from where ihey were and told

'This volume, 2oC.

1922.] Lowie, Religion of the Crow. 441

his brothers. The rock-visionary said, "We'll see whether they are going
to laugh." On the fifth day they saw an enemy with forty head of horses.
They waited till he had halted. He did not go far. The horses were
grazing. The rock-boy said, "Wait till he is asleep." He went up and blew
out the enemy's brains. There were two especially fine horses, a pinto and
a bay, the remainder were good too. It was a Piegan they had killed.
The rock-visionary was leader, the arrow-owner killed the enemy, the
doctor struck coups, the two little ones took the two best horses, the re-
mainder were divided among them all. They returned. Before they got
to the camp, the three older ones went ahead at night and got to their
sister. They were hungry, and she cooked for them. She asked, "Where
are your brothers?" "With the horses." She gave them breakfast
for them. They told their brother-in-law to sing praise-songs. "If they
ask you about it, say that you have had a good dream." So he acted
accordingly, saying he had had a good dream about his brothers-in-law.

Soon the boys came into camp. Their brother-in-law took charge of
their horses. The young man began to sing about the one who had
mocked them, using the words he had uttered. After the horses had been
corralled, they returned to the tipi. The women came and brought pem-
mican. "This is my sister's son." The leader of the war party threw
their meat away. "When we were poor, they did nothing for us. We are
going to deal only with our relatives and pay the two others who Were
kind to us." So they gave a horse to the man who had given them the
deer and another to the man who had given meat to their younger broth-
ers. "All the rest belong to j^ou, brother-in-law and sister.' '

Not long after this the five boys were gone, no one knew where.
The man said, "My brothers-in-law are gone." "You need not worry
about them, they are men." They came back again with plenty of
horses, all of which they gave to their brother-in-law. At this time the
chief had a daughter. Young men wanted to buy her, but she refused
their offers, though her father wished to own the horses offered. At last
he said, "I want you to marry the doctor." So one night the girl came
to where the three older boys were sleeping and lay down with the doctor.
The following morning the brother-in-law roused his wife, saying "Your
brothers are married." She looked and it was the chief's daughter. So
she cooked for them and woke them up. "Which one have you come
for?" she asked her sister-in-law. "I rejected all my suitors, and my
father told me to come here, saying he would help me with property, so
I have come to marry him." So they were married and after a while the
young woman had her mother make moccasins for them and they went

442 Anthropological Papers American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XXV,

on the warpath. They brought back seven head of horses, which they
gave to the father-in-law. The three older ones were named Medicine-
stone, What-he-makes-is-medicine (the doctor), and Medicine-shot.

Some time after this the young woman invited them all to her tipi.
The boys consulted with their sister, who said, "Yes, but don't go with
him, he is married now." They went after buffalo, the people being short
of meat. They shared the game and turned over the meat to the young
woman's mother, who said to her daughter, ''That is what I w^ant. You
refused 3'our suitors but you met the right one."

The people moved. In the winter they camped. It snowed so
they could not go hunting, and all their meat supply was consvmied.
If anyone killed a deer, his meat was soon gone. All the Crow were
starving, so that the}^ ate roseberries and boiled hair or deer hide for
food. The mother-in-law spoke to her daughter. "Talk to your hus-
band about this; see whether he can help us." She spoke to him, but he
said nothing in reply. He saw his sister, returned and said, "I will get
meat but they must get a beaver's castoreum." The girl told her
father and the crier announced it. Men asked to see the performance.
"You may come in, but don't touch the door and don't go out." He got
his medicine, which was hanging up, and they brought the castoreum.
When all were in the tipi, the medicine rock was exposed; some of its
sweetgrass covering was chopped fine and was smoked for incense. The
stone was greased all over with the beaver musk, then it got smoky and
foggy inside. All the smoke passed out of the smoke-hole and as it did
so the clouds outside began to part, the snowfall abated and it cleared
up. When all the smoke had passed out of the lodge, there were no more
clouds. The whole camp rejoiced and asked the j^oung man to help them
get meat. "I have done enough, the buffalo will come." He told the
women not to chop wood. The men hunted buffalo for three days, kilHng
plenty of them. They were told not to break any buffalo backbones.
They killed so many that each family had two rows of jerked meat about
twenty feet long.

The shaman's wife told her father to tell the Indians to blacken their
faces since some of the enemj^ were coming. It was in the spring of the
year. The enemies came; the Crow killed two Piegan and had a big
round dance. The young men assembled and sang a song throughout
the camp: "What I said is coming true, I am going." There was no
more sickness, all people lived well since the coming of the boys. The
doctor had his wife decorated with elk teeth.

1922.] Lo'wie, Religion of the Crow. 443

The three older brothers were married, only the two younger ones
were still single. The rock-owner said, "I have been told to go over to
One-tree {mare-tavy and live there." He was leader of the camp and
everything was done in accordance with his commands. He went to the
Yellowstone. All the country was covered with buffalo. The Crow
kept in the woods out of sight of the game. They continued hunting
buffalo, making two trips a day, and had an abundance of meat. This
was in the winter time. It was so cold that the grease froze into sohd
condition in the morning. The rock-owner told his wife hot to break any
stones in their tipi. One day he went to his sister to sleep. He was told
that his mother-in-law had cracked bones in the tipi. He told his wife
about it. She went to her m.other. "You broke a rock in here." "No,
I never did." "How can my husband lie? Let me look." She saw that
a rock had been cracked. She scolded her mother, "That's the worst
thing you could have done." The mother went out crying. The herald
announced that the enemy were steahng horses. "Get your best horses,
we'll pursue them." They took the best horses. Four young men went
along. One young man had no horse left and asked the shaman to help
him recover his horses. "No, I did not go along because my mother-in-
law broke the stone in my lodge." The young man went away. Another
man whose son had been killed by the Piegan came to the shaman and
asked him to help him get revenge, saying, "I have been mourning for a
long time." But the shaman refused, giving the same reasons. This
man cried. The war party was waiting for this shaman, but he sent a
message that he was not going. However, when he heard the old man
cry, he decided to go. He got two horses. "If I get killed, it will be well;
you may have my horses." He followed and caught up with the party.
He made medicine in the enemy's tracks. "I was not going to come, but
since you asked me so hard, I came." He filled a pipe with tobacco and
smoked on the buffalo chips lying on the tracks.

They started and sent scouts, who reported, "They are moving in a
coulee." The warriors asked the rock-owner what to do. He told them
to run immediately, not waiting for himself. His two young brothers
were far in the lead, the elder one struck first-coup, the other dismounted
and captured the enemy's gun. The Piegan ran into a wash, dug a pit
and fought there. The rock-owner was far away, smoking. The man
who had sought revenge said to him, "I asked for revenge. What are
you doing here?" "I see I shall have to go no matter.what comes of it."
He ran into the thickest part of the fight and was wounded in the chest
so that he was nearly dead when he was picked up. His four brothers

>A little above the site of Miles City.

444 Anihropologicnl Papers American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XXV,

were furious; they were going to kill the man who had asked him to go
out. "It is as though you had killed him yourself; we'll kill you if he
dies." He did not answer. They returned down-hearted because their
leader was shot. He willed his rock to the brother who was a doctor.
This one said, "I'll try to help you first, I don't know whether I can."
He treated him and he improved, then he began to have faith again.

In the camp the people were down-hearted. The next day the doctor
made them all stand toward the middle. There was no water to be seen
in the river on account of the ice covering it. He went toward the river.
A herald proclaimed that no one was to cross his tracks. The doctor
made his patient dive into the water up to his neck four times. The river
was covered with blood. He l^rought him back to the tipi, heated a
stone, put cloth over it, and rubbed it over the sore part. Then the
shaman was cured, and the people had a big dance.

The youngest of the brothers said, ^'As soon as the snow has dis-
appeared, I am going to hunt medicine for myself." The oldest one
answered: "You had better not go, you have all you want." "Some-
thing has always troubled me, I want to find out for myself." The boy
left. The boys were the wealthiest people in camp and had everything
they wished for. When this young boy left, he told his brother-in-law
not to worry. He made his own arrows and killed meadowlarks, taking
the first wing feathers to feather his arrows. He traveled about, trying
to find out something. While walking he saw some cherry trees and
among them some smoke. He sneaked up towards it and carefully
approached. He saw a tipi with holes in it, and through one of them he
saw a woman cutting lodge pegs (t k'ace). This woman was Hicictawia.
She had a kettle on the fire. He entered. "Well, well, my child, I am
all alone. Where do you come from? Do you know me? Is that the
reason you have come?" "I was travehng and saw the smoke, so I
thought I should get something to eat." She had her tipi by the spring
and she was sitting on one side. "Child, sit here." She spread some-
thing for him. She took out a parfleche of young buffalo skin and opened
it. There were nice lumps of fat and pemmican in it. The boy ate the
meal, then went and cut more cherry trees, got shafts for arrows, bit
them with his teeth and stuck them all around. "Son, I'll tell you some-
thing. For a long time I have given you visions. You have not a
strong will (irdaxe), that is why it has taken so long a time. I have been
looking for you for a long time, but everything is the same to you {di
xdxik'). Now I warn you not to go over there where the point of the hill
is." (The tale here merges into a recital of Old-Woman's-Grandchild's
adventures^ with the snakes and the sucking monster.)

'This volume, 52 seq.

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